From Norway to Spain, France to Russia, Masterpieces of the Romantic Piano offers a veritable smorgasbord of European piano music from the 19th century and its outlying decades. Traversing a broad spectrum of emotion and style, and featured in several modern film and television soundtracks, the keyboard gems heard on this recording will be familiar friends to the ear.

Opening the recording with a burst of energy is the frantic dancing of Mozart's "Rondo alla turca," played with bright clarity by pianist Jeno Jando; this is followed by the more subdued but equally playful Minuet in G major by Beethoven. Later on, Brahms brings on the drama with the Rhapsody in G minor, a work that is rarely recorded, and is here captured by Idil Biret in a performance that does justice to the Rhapsody's many shades of storm.

MOZART: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331:...
BEETHOVEN: Minuet in G major, Wo0 10, No. 6
BRAHMS: 2 Rhapsodies, Op. 79: No. 2 in G minor

Continuing along the emotional rollercoaster are the virtuosic fireworks and melodrama of Liszt's "Love Dream," which are then mellowed out with the warm melancholy of Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons." The sparkling athleticism of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" is followed by the ever-popular, soundtrack for a moonlight tryst, "Clair de Lune" by Debussy.

LISZT: Liebestraume, S541/R211: No. 3. Nocturne in...
TCHAIKOVSKY: Les Saisons (The Seasons), Op. 37b:...
GRIEG: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op. 65, No. 6
DEBUSSY: Clair de lune

Masterpieces' only work by a female composer, Poland's Tekla Badarzewska-Baranowska, is the flourishing and playful "A Maiden's Prayer." The recording ends with Rachmaninov's explosive Prelude in C sharp minor, written by the Russian composer at the tender age of 19.

BADARZEWSKA-BARANOWSKA: The Maiden's Prayer
RACHMANINOV: Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2

Recommended Tracks:
TCHAIKOVSKY: Les Saisons (The Seasons), Op. 37b:...
RACHMANINOV: Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2