<<  -- 2 --  Bill Newman    SPARKLE AND POLISH

César Cui, regarded as a Beckmesser by colleagues, wrote some charming songs and chamber music, almost totally lost to posterity. Causerie, a charming étude of unpretentious demeanour, sets the scene. Fauré's Après un rêve, highly popular as a song, benefits from Percy Grainger's ebullient setting, while Grieg's Jeg Elsker Deg ('I Love Thee') becomes an effusive outpouring to his beloved wife. Leopold Godowsky, conversely, adds audacious touches to Schubert's delectable Moment Musical No 3.

An early Scriabin group -- Etude in C sharp minor, Mazurkas in E minor, C sharp minor and E minor -- provides gentle Chopinesque slants, but then the pianist pays homage to his teacher Ann Driver. Doll's Lullaby [listen -- track 9, 0:00-0:40] has a kind of simple and sad, yet intropective feeling of longing, with Sarabande motioning us with restrained harmonies. I particularly like the following threesome -- Ireland's The Almond Trees [listen -- track 11, 2:29-3:22], with increasing cascading brushes with wind, Vaughan Williams' The Lake in the Mountains -- a glory of modal indestructability, and -- more famous in its orchestral setting -- Griffes' The White Peacock -- a photogenic true impression of the imperious creature.

Beside them, Rheinhold Glière's keyboard music sounds vaguely classical in setting -- Prelude in E flat, Aux Champs (a take off of Grieg) and the strident Prelude in C minor. A salon appreciation with a wonderful, weaving melody comes in Tchaikovsky's Waltz in A flat, but matching the master for sheer inventiveness, Anatol Liadov's Preludes in B minor, B flat minor, and Berceuse (note the obvious crib from Chopin) set new perspectives in stature and nuance.

The prolific keyboard writer Ernesto Lecuona has more obvious claims in his carefree setting of Cordoba. Later Scriabin, Masque and Etrangeté, both possess a certain astringency, but Rachmaninov, in the early Elegie has assuredness. Bartók's Pe loc, away from the other Romanian Folk Dances stands remote, and Shostakovich's A flat Prelude is atypically Russian. Traumerei by Richard Strauss lingers in the memory -- Gieseking was fond of it. The programme ends with the favourite Artur Rubinstein encore by his friend Villa-Lobos -- O Polichinelo ('Witch Doll') from The Baby's Family.

Sparkle and polish abound throughout, and Gary Cole's sound expertise does the rest.

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.