Telarc: CD80712

Gloria Cheng - Piano music of Salonen, Stucky, Lutoslawski

Acclaimed pianist Gloria Cheng performs world premiere recordings of works by three leading contemporary composers, Witold Lutoslawski, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Steven Stucky. American composer Steven Stucky’s “Four Album Leaves” and “Three Little Variations for David” are his first fully realized piano pieces written since his childhood. Cheng performs three works by the Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. She premieres “Three Preludes”, and also performs “Dichotomie”, which was specially written for her and “Yta II” which explores the subtleties of the piano, as well as the virtuosity of the musician playing it. Witold Lutoslawski wrote his piano sonata in 1934 while he was still a composition student at the Warsaw Conservatory but the work was never published during his lifetime. Gloria Cheng’s premiere recording is based on a combination of three sources: the PWM edition, a photocopy of a manuscript of the sonata written in the hand of the composer’s late wife, Danuta, and detailed discussions with Charles Bodman Rae, a leading expert on Lutoslawski’s music.