Franz Schmidt : Oeuvres pour piano (main gauche) et orchestre

Piano International (Jul, 2014)
Bratislava-born, Vienna-domiciled Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) is barely known in the UK, save by vague reputation as a disciple of Bruckner and Reger. He wrote much music for one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and this two-disc Pan Classics album, recorded in 1995-1999 but only now released, contains a lot of it.

These are big pieces: the Concerto’s first movement alone is longer than the whole Ravel D major. The idiom is rooted in 19th-century vocabulary, though with novel use of variation and fugue forms. It demands attentive listening: fast and frequent modulations risk leaving us behind. The solo part is ingenious, always taxing and sometimes – as in the third movement cadenza – …