Fascinations Piano Moods

Fascinations is a volume of quirky juxtapositions and intriguing pieces of music. L'illet is cheek-by-jowl with Liszt, Schumann with Scarlatti and Sjogren. There are some fine newly-written miniatures, but also some extraordinary pieces by well-known composers, such as Mozart's bizarre Funeral march of Signor Maestro Contrapunto or the unsophisticated music-making faithfully represented in Gounod's Les pifferari and Tchaikovsky's The peasant plays the mouth-organ. Dance movements by Telemann, Schubert, Rameau, Jiovec and Zilcher all have something unexpected or piquant about them, although they are technically straightforward and a joy to play.