Ginastera: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22

With the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Mexican Carlos Chávez, the Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera was without question one of the most important figures that Latin America gave to the twentieth century. The founder of many institutions, an eminent teacher, he accomplished much for the diffusion of contemporary music in Argentina, in particular by inviting leading composers (Stravinsky, Hindemith, Copland, Xenakis). A tireless composer, integrating melodic material and rhythms from Argentinean traditional music, Ginastera developed a musical language ever open to new techniques, progressing towards neoclassicism and then serialism, while still retaining a strong artistic personality that was both modern and poetic. Michiko Tsuda gets to grips with this virtuoso and hard-hitting music. A great specialist of South American music, she is the ideal performer of this world premiere recording of the Argentinean master’s complete piano works on a single CD.