Best Digital Piano Keyboard for Beginners & Professionals - 88 Key Weighted Hammer Action with Stand & Pedal - Perfect for Home Practice, Studio Recording & Live Performances

I have been a Florent Schmitt buff for years, dating back to the late 50's, when I purchased a remaindered copy of piano four-hand music by the composer played by the Casadesus husband and wife, a wonderful disc which has never, to my knowledge, been released on cds, even as a few companies have put out single cds and boxes of supposedly all that Robert Casadesus recorded. Would that he had recorded some of Schmitt's wonderful solo piano works instead of the Ravel near complete, never totally at the top of the heap with much, especially today, competition. Be that as it may, that lp of long ago inspired me to buy, and then later perform the four-hand suite, Petite Elf Ferme-L'oyie, which I adore. In the last few years, I have much enjoyed getting to know many other works of Schmitt, and each time I hear a new one I marvel that his music, apparently more widely performed in the early twentieth century, could have been so completely eclipsed. So I put this cd in the player with no small sense of anticipation, and I was, again, not at all disappointed. Not only is the music first rate, the performance of it, by Laurent Wagshal is stunningly fine. I see from the offerings on Amazon that this disc was previously available on another label and has been repackaged on Timpani. (Evidently you can still buy the other earlier incarnation: either way you cannot go wrong.) I put Florent Schmitt up there with Ravel and Debussy : that's way up, and deserved, an impressionist with the gorgeous colors and harmonies of that school but not sounding like either composer It sounds as if this music is, in many of the pieces, very difficult to play (perhaps that is the reason it has been ignored, although most teachers and artists will still play Debussy and Ravel and not take the time to investigate something not well known0. Mr. Wagschal's playing deserves the highest praise; again, why is HE not better known? I don't think I have seen in the reviewing magazines any mention of him or the other cd's he has done. Too bad one has to stumble upon cd's like this, rather than be given an impetus to investigate (which I hope I am providing with this). I have a better cd title for this album, it could have been called Florent by Laurent! And to think, I missed my calling for advertising! Do get this, you will not be disappointed.