Risto Lauriala - Josef Suk: Piano Pieces (2002)

Josef Suk (1874-1935), student and son-in-law of Antonin Dvorák, is one of music's hidden treasures. At the beginning of his career, as in the Six Piano Pieces, he wrote a reasonable facsimile of his teacher's music. The first of these pieces, "Love Song," is the best known of the set, but it's not the only beautiful one. "Moods," even less familiar music, is similarly lovely. By the time he wrote About Mother, Suk had been through the experience that was to transform his life: the early death of his greatly beloved wife, Otilie. (Suk's grief was so great he never remarried.) The tenderness and vivid expressive quality of About Mother makes it one of the most memorable piano works of the entire Romantic era. Fortunately, the Finnish pianist Risto Lauriala is completely in touch with Suk's idiom, playing with the relaxed lyricism and lush tone the music requires. All this music is worthwhile, but hearing About Mother in quiet solitude is the kind of experience recordings were invented for. -- Leslie Gerber