This is the fifth disc in our ongoing Gottschalk series and the success of the project means that what we originally expected to be a few highlights discs seems likely to become the first complete recording of the composer's output for solo piano. We are now well past the half-way point and another 2-3 CDs should encompass the project.
All Gottschalk's usual hallmarks are here—Caribbean rhythms, tear-jerking melodies, salon polkas, national melodies—wrapped up in the most elegant 19th-century virtuoso pianism. The repertoire includes several of the composer's best known pieces such as the hugely virtuosic 'Tremolo' (the last piece Gottschalk ever played as he collapsed during a performance of it and died shortly after of a ruptured appendix) or the Cuban inspired 'El Cocoyé', all played in his usual idiomatic style by Philip Martin, by critical consent the foremost exponent of Gottschalk playing today.
All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set