Erik Satie Complete Piano Works

Always inventive and innovation-seeking, Erik Satie’s earliest works show traces of Chopin as an influence but he soon came to reject virtuosity and tradition, choosing instead to remain with the quintessentially French traits of simplicity, clarity, precision, elegance and economy. Satie’s hauntingly beautiful floating melodies and modal tonalities are unforgettably compelling, combining bygone classical ages with Parisian sophistication. This landmark recording uses both a new and corrected edition of Satie’s music and Cosima Wagner’s own 1881 Erard piano, his instrument maker of choice.

With generally brisk tempos, a mixture of daring and wit, and a keen sense to balance emotion and intellect, pianist Florian Uhlig stands as a sort of cross between Vladimir Horowitz and Alfred Brendel. He has impressed concert audiences with his bold and incisive interpretations in a range of repertory, while on disc he has scored notable success in his traversal of the complete works for piano and orchestra by Schumann and Shostakovich. He possesses a technique that allows him to play the most challenging keyboard fare, from works by Liszt and Chopin to music of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov.

The second volume in Giogio Koukls complete survey of Arthur Vincent Louriés piano music spans the years 1912 to 1938. In that time the Belarus-born composer embraced extended tonality in Deux Poèmes, Op. 8, huge Scriabinesque chords in Synthèses, Op. 16 and forward-looking harmonic astringency in the Sonatina No. 3. His post-Revolutionary Paris years are represented by a sequence of characterful miniatures.

Manuel Ponce was one of Mexicos most prolific and decorated composers and remains highly esteemed and popular today. Forced to leave Mexico during the Revolution, Ponce settled in Cuba and soon absorbed the islands seductive Caribbean sensuality and subtle dances, also expressing melancholic nostalgia for his homeland in the Elegía de la ausencia. Exploration of new compositional techniques while in Paris resulted in significant works such as the Suite Bitonal, particularly valued for its original aesthetic and inspired lyricism.

Stravinsky described Nikolay Roslavets as "the most interesting Russian composer of the 20th century," but after decades of suppression in the former Soviet Union his significance is still being assessed even today through newly discovered and reconstructed works. Although Scriabin's influence can be heard in earlier works, reconstructed works. Although Scriabin's influence can be heard in earlier works, Roslavets' constant experimentation with original and complex compositional techniques resulted in his "new system of tone organization" and "synthetic chords". Olga Andryuschchenko describes Roslavets' daunting piano music as "fire and ice!"

(3-CD set) Scott Joplin (c. 1867-1917) remains one of America's most important and original composers, renowned for his piano rags and ragtime waltzes. As the 'King of Ragtime Writers,' his mastery of the form is evident in such works as 'Maple Leaf Rag,' 'The Entertainer,' 'Gladiolus Rag,' 'Solace,' and many others that combine infectious rhythms with exquisite melodies. His piano works are at times overwhelmingly joyous and at times deeply poignant.

The complete published works by Gershwin are quite extraordinary for their invention. His jazz bubbles over with clever ideas for piano (Gershwin was, after all, a true virtuoso of the piano). His compositions have an abundance of colours and genres that blend, bind and burst into new and spacious musical language.

Glinka can justifiably be described as the fertile acorn from which grew the mighty oak of 19th century Russian national music. The graceful Variations on a Theme by Mozart, based on material from The Magic Flute, is remodelled so skilfully that it has effectively become an original theme. Fashionable salon pieces include the Variations on Benadetta sia la madre, an Italian romance, and Variations on a Theme from Cherubinis Faniska, an opera greatly admired by Glinka.