Bohemian born composer Jan Hugo Voríšek settled in Vienna and became a close friend of Schubert. Voríšek’s Impromptus Op.7 were the first to bear this title, their lyric influence anticipating the entire Romantic period. The brilliant Fantasy combines improvisation with structural rigour, while the Sonata Op.20 is a masterpiece to rival the sonatas of Beethoven.

Biljana Urban received her PhD in Music (Piano Performance) summa cum laude from the Academy of Music in Zagreb. In her native country (the former Yugoslavia) she received the most prestigious awards. She also studied at the Ecole Normale de Paris and settled in Paris in 1983. Her musicianship has been strongly influenced by Elisso Virsaladze, Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Eugene Indjic. Since 1991 she has been based in Amsterdam.