Edward Loder (1809–65), the scion of an important family of early-Victorian musicians, is one of the ‘lost generation’ of British composers living between Samuel Wesley’s time and the beginnings of the ‘British musical renaissance’.

He enjoyed brief success as an operatic composer and for a while he could rely on frequent commissions and publication for his songs and piano music. But he had an uneven and ultimately tragic career: not only was he briefly imprisoned for debt; he ended his days a pauper, paralysed and forgotten.

Yet the best of his piano music – recorded here for the first time – shows a composer alert to developments in the music of Beethoven and Schubert and with a lively sense of invention of his own.

This CD is released to mark the 150th anniversary of Edward Loder’s death.

Ian Hobson, pianist and conductor, began his international career in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. He is in increasing demand as a conductor, particularly for performances in which he doubles as a pianist. He made his debut in this capacity in 1996 with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and also performs extensively as pianist-conductor with Sinfonia da Camera, a group he formed in 1984 and which quickly gained international recognition through its recordings. Ian Hobson appears on a number of other Toccata Classics recordings as pianist.