The fifth volume in this much admired series offers another fascinating anthology. Of the 17 pianists, the two oldest are the long-lived Cornelia Rider-Possart (1865-1963) who can be heard on an exceptionally rare, non-commercial 1926 Berlin disc, in the first recording of Scriabin’s Etude, Op. 42, No. 3, and Etelka Freund (1879-1977), a pupil of Brahms, who performs one of his Intermezzos in 1952. Jean Melville, a distant relation of Arthur Sullivan, plays Valse arabesque in London in 1923, whilst Johana Harris who, together with her husband, the American composer Roy Harris, enjoyed a highly successful career, can be heard playing Frescobaldi in Los Angeles.

Marina A. Ledin & Victor Ledin, producers

Artists

Johana Harris (piano), Emma Contestabile (piano), Denise Lassimonne (piano), Dorothea Winand-Mendelssohn (piano), Tatiana Nikolayeva (piano), Etelka Freund (piano), Felicitas Karrer (piano), Eva Wollman (piano), Denise Herbrecht, Lucien Petitjean (piano), Jean Melville (piano), Carmen-Marie-Lucie Guilbert (piano), Madeleine Grovlez (piano), Ida-Marie-Louise Périn (piano), Cornelia Rider-Possart (piano), Grete Scherzer (piano), Annette Haas-Hamburger (piano), Lenore Engdahl (piano)