Marius Dawn
Pianist
March 2016

Alessio Bax and his pianist wife Lucille Chung had a baby girl. Congratulations! And how best for a piano dream team like this to celebrate? Of course: pick some sweet moments from previous releases and put them together onto a CD dedicated to baby Mila. A splendid idea! Here is a box of musical goodies, almost verging on the saccharine in terms of repertoire. But don't let that deter you—the playing is of the highest calibre. Particularly moving are the Bach arr. Siloti and Bach arr. Petri pieces, as well as Rachmaninov's Vocalise and other Rachmaninov preludes (Chung joins Bax in two engaging four-hand Brahms waltzes). If you are a Bax fan, and have most of his fine earlier releases, you'll find a lot of these works scattered throughout. If you don't possess any of them, get this release—Bax has picked out the tasteist bon-bons for you.