Known in his lifetime as ‘the north German Schubert’, Carl Loewe (1796–1869) is remembered today chiefly as a composer of ballads. Yet there is a considerable body of piano music that is strikingly innovative in content, expression and harmony, containing the germs of ideas later taken up by composers such as Wagner and Liszt. Loewe was unquestionably a brilliantly original talent, a major figure in ushering in the Romantic era. This release is the second of three recordings of Loewe’s piano music, in the first ever systematic survey of Loewe’s piano music; the pianist is Linda Nicholson, one of the world’s leading performers on period pianos. Carl Loewe died on April 20, 1869; this recording is being released to mark the 150th anniversary of that occasion.