Bulgarian classical pianist Tania Stavreva offers three piano works on her web site.

Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata, Op. 26 was initially performed by Vladimir Horowitz and was hailed by the piano virtuoso as the first great American composition for piano. It is indeed a powerful work. It teeters between late romanticism and the more modern, and dissonant, 20th century styles. I grew up on recordings of Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Summer Music for Wind Quintet, so this sonata is a welcome addition to my knowledge of the exceptional music of Samuel Barber..

The Piano Sonata no. 3 of Alexander Scriabin was composed in 1897. The sonata is firmly in the late Romantic style of Brahms and Liszt but reveals that Scriabin is starting to create his own signature sound. Romantic, passionate and a little florid, this is a perfect piece for Stavreva’s own passionate manner of playing.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in C Minor, BWV 911 wraps up the three works. The ten minute composition is a bit brief for inclusion in this blog but if you can’t make an exception for Bach who can you make an exception for? Some might say Stavreva’s romanticist technique is a bit much for the Baroque structures of Bach but I think it gives the piece a different perspective.

All tracks are available in 128kbps MP3.

Download (click on “Audio”)