Australian-British pianist Piers Lane designates this release as a collection of his most-played encores, restricting that group to the 20th century in order to have any hope of making coherent sense of them. The album works reasonably well in fulfilling his intention. Encores used to carry a bit of an air of mystery, of "what in the world is that?" to be explained verbally by the pianist from the stage, and Lane resurrects this concept with a group of intriguing short pieces that have been very little played. Some are from ...
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Australian-British pianist Piers Lane designates this release as a collection of his most-played encores, restricting that group to the 20th century in order to have any hope of making coherent sense of them. The album works reasonably well in fulfilling his intention. Encores used to carry a bit of an air of mystery, of "what in the world is that?" to be explained verbally by the pianist from the stage, and Lane resurrects this concept with a group of intriguing short pieces that have been very little played. Some are from his native Australia; some are from forgotten corners of the popular tradition; some, like Sigfrid Karg-Elert's Arabesque No. 1 in G flat major, Op. 5 ("Filigran"), are simply pieces that have fallen out of fashion. As such, the album is worthwhile, but it's even more fun as a reconstruction of something that would have been fairly common 75 years ago but is rare nowadays: a performance that mixes classical and popular traditions without turning much at all to jazz. An old British...
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