2009 is the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth, and he will be the focus of many radio and TV programmes, plus concerts worldwide.

New recording: one of a series of releases from Brilliant Classics featuring outstanding young artists who have won the principal prizes at the Young Pianist Foundation’s National Piano Competition.

Pieter-Jelle de Boer was born in the Netherlands in 1978, and started playing the piano at the age of five. A student of Jan Wijn, Murray Perahia and Emanuel Ax, he took the second prize at the 2001 YPF National Piano Competition. At the Paris Conservatoire, he studied conducting with Peter Eötvös and John Carewe. He has a busy recital and concert schedule.

For this Mendelssohn recital, de Boer has chosen some of the composer’s most brilliant and virtuosic works. The Variations sérieuses Op.54 are generally considered to be among his most successful works for solo piano. As a virtuoso pianist Mendelssohn composed manyhighly demanding works for his instrument. The early Sonata Op.6 shows the unmistakable influence of Beethoven and Mozart, but the Rondo capriccioso Op.14 is a wonderful example of the technical wizardry Mendelssohn was capable of. He was very friendly with the composer and pianist Ignaz Moscheles (a friend in turn of both Beethoven and Hummel), and the older man’s influence upon the young Mendelssohn’s keyboard-writing should not be underestimated.

This disc offers a good opportunity to sample some of Mendelssohn’s piano-writing outside of the famous Songs without Words sets that tend to overshadow his works for piano.