And then there's Glazunov ! Another marvellous Russian composer with a string body of piano music. And Cui, whose Preludes I find very impressive (but haven't tried them yet). I often wonder what it is with these Russians and the piano. They all seem to have a natural talent for it.

Hi andrew and Chris,

Yes, Liapunoff has been on my to-do list, so I'll definitely have a look at that nocturne you mentioned. He wrote some wonderful pieces. I think, for example, of "Nuit d'ete"
from the Transcendental Etudes that you recorded, andrew--superb! Oftentimes Liapunoff's music is very accessible, but other times it's terrifically difficult to play.

Glazunov wrote some fine piano works too. I was completely unaware of the Cui Preludes though. Of "The Five", Balakirev, Borodine, Mussourgsky, and Korsakov have become household names to musicians. But Cesar Cui somehow always seemed to me to be much less known. Probably that's why his name didn't occur to me relative to the piano literature. But Catoire wasn't well known either! I'll have to check into those preludes. Thanks for mentioning them.

David

They're all on YouTube. Of the mighty kooshka, Cui was IMHO the better piano composer after Balakirev. Borodin didn't write anything of substance, Rimsky only a handful of moderately interesting things (though his piano concerto is rather good) and Moussorgsky would have been marginal were it not for the Pictures. Glazunov, all of his piano works are very fine if occasionally a little academic. I still plan to record his Theme and Variations, though I got side-tracked as usual. I've given up on the Preludes and Fugues - they're just too damn difficult and long

To clarify, they're not misreadings (whether one approves of them or not), but rather conscious textual emendations (as Cyprien and I often are prone to do).