Cui: Complete Piano Mu... - Paul Rickard-ford - Audio CD (Arrives in 50 days)

This valuable revival of the piano music by César Cui (1835-1918) began with a 2CD volume played by Marco Rapetti (PCL10211), surveying the composer’s early output from 1877 to 1888. Born in what is now Vilnius, capital of modern-day Lithuania, Cui began to learn the piano as a child, initially from his elder sister. His first and last compositions were written for the piano, and he produced 29 opus numbers for the instrument (the total opus catalogue reaches 106). The Australian pianist Paul Rickard-Ford now moves the project on with a chronological survey from the Quatre Morceaux Op.22 of 1883 to the Theme and Variations Op.61, from 1901. Dedicated respectively to Theodore Leschitzky and to Josef Hofmann, these pieces show how admired Cui was in his day, even if he is now generally treated as the forgotten member of the ‘Mighty Handful’ group of Russian composers.

Label: Piano Classics | Origin: Holland