Hyperion Records

One of his happiest creations, Ses Yeux is quintessential Gottschalk. It might be a celebration of the end of the Civil War, ‘dashing and relentlessly optimistic’ as Richard Jackson observes in the introduction to his valuable selection of Gottschalk’s music (Dover Publications, 1973). The penultimate section (con bravura) could easily be a march by Sousa.

Originally written for two pianos, the solo version that Philip Martin plays here is by Gottschalk’s friend, the Brazilian pianist and publisher Arthur Napoleão. On four occasions, in order to accommodate the figurations in the second piano part, Napoleão introduces a third hand at the top of the keyboard with the instruction: ‘to play it like the arranger, double the number of notes, playing four [demisemiquavers] instead of two [semiquavers], and change alternate hands every four notes’. Rather than this circus act, Philip Martin has remained with the published score, overdubbing the additional line himself.

from notes by Jeremy Nicholas © 2005