Peter Froundjian - Christmas Piano Music

Christmas is traditionally celebrated with contemplative and solemn music. Even though the piano was not originally regarded as a sacred instrument, there have been many composers, including some famous ones, who have written Christmas music for the instrument. Pianist Peter Froundjian, who has made a speciality of performing little-known piano music and who founded the internationally acclaimed festival "Raritäten der Klaviermusik" (Rarities of Piano Music) that has taken place in Husum every year since 1987, has chosen some of the most beautiful of these pieces for the present album. Snöflingor (Snowflakes) by the Finnish composer Selim Palmgren (1878-1951) uses Impressionistic stylistic resources to paint a picture of gently falling snowflakes, while the little fantasia Drømmen om "Glade Jul" (The Dream of "Silent Night") by Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is a reworking of the melody of Silent Night. Busoni's Sonatina in diem Nativitatis Christi, the world-premiere recordings of Noël and Pastorale by Ignacy Friedman (1882-1948) and the twelve Pastorales by Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) are all genuine discoveries. The six short variations on the old Northumbrian carol O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies by Arnold Bax (1883-1953) strike a folklike tone. The album is rounded off by Christmas piano music from Pastourelles, a set of pieces by the French composer Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), who was a close friend of Debussy.