Hyperion Records

Robert Offergeld’s catalogue of Gottschalk’s works tells us that the solo piano version as heard here was arranged by one H Maylath, though the music bears no such attribution. The original work for piano four hands (RO217) was published in Boston in 1865. It was one of many Gottschalk pieces that appeared originally under the name ‘Paul Ernest’. Many pieces by ‘Ernest’, ‘Seven Octaves’, and other Gottschalk pseudonyms, were dedicated ‘To My Dear Friend L M Gottschalk’. The innocent gaiety and irrepressible exuberance of Radieuse, however, surely merit no such bashfulness.

from notes by Jeremy Nicholas © 2005