Antoinette van Zabner, born in Austria and raised in the United States, presents with this album a selection of largely peaceful and calm piano pieces by composers of the late 19th and early 20th century, such as Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin, Federico Mompou and Ernst Toch. The enormous political and social upheavals in Europe around the year 1900 found their repercussions in music with the creation of smaller pieces, comprising elements of improvisation and spontaneous thematic ideas. The works selected here derive mostly from the Slavic and French tradition and go by titles like Prélude, Poème and Improvisation. An atmospheric setting for a profound relaxation.

Antoinette Van Zabner began her musical training at the age of four; within the following year she won the first prize at a Canadian Broadcasting System competition.

The musical colleagues with whom Antoinette Van Zabner has made numerous recordings for radio, television and on CDs include members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovakian Chamber Orchestra, the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester; she has accompanied artists such as Nigel Rogers, Patricia Wise, Benno Schollum, Peter Matzka and the Koehne Quartet and collaborates closely with the Austrian Society for Contemporary Music. Her busy concert schedule takes her throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and Japan where she has played in renowned concert halls such as London’s Wigmore Hall, the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C. and the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Antoinette Van Zabner is a full professor of piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna as well as giving numerous master classes and lectures on teaching piano throughout Europe, the U.S.A. and Japan. In 2003 she received the Ian Mininberg award, Yale University School of Music’s highest honour.