Although Alexandre Tansman was considered a genius in his lifetime, these recordings demonstrate that much of his chamber music remains to be rediscovered after years of neglect.

Tansman’s early successes included the prize-winning Romance and late-Romantic Sonate No.2, ensuring his move from Poland into Parisian cultural life. The exploratory character and exquisite poetry of the Sonate quasi una fantasia contrasts with the concise First Sonatine with its playful Fox-Trot. Despite its wartime origins, the Second Sonatine is bright and buoyant, while the Fantaisie is an expressively lyrical product of Tansman’s final period.

Despite something of a revival in recent years, the range and quality of Alexandre Tansman’s work is still being discovered, as the numerous world première recordings on this program show. Works such as the Sonatine No.1 and Fantaisie have appeared in other versions (with flute and cello respectively), but most of this music is entirely new to CD.

Albanian violinist Klaidi Sahatči has been acclaimed widely as a soloist and is currently First Concertmaster of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich. Pianist Giorgio Koukl has become one of our most sought after recording artists since his performances of the complete piano works of Bohuslav Martinů, as well as that of Alexander Tcherepnin on the Grand Piano label. This title joins a number of Naxos recordings of Tansman’s music, including for clarinet and piano (8570235) which is a reference recording in the Penguin Guide, an ICMA award nominated program of piano music (8572266), and his Clarinet Concerto (8572402).