A significant composer of the Mendelssohn line is Arnold Mendelssohn (1855–1933), great-nephew of Felix. He was born in the Silesian town of Ratibor (now Racibórz, Poland) on 26 December 1855. Arnold Mendelssohn’s piano works are modest in number and all of them are recorded here. The compilation begins with the “pen-and-ink drawings” published in 1901 by Dreililien (Berlin) as Five Characteristic Pieces for Piano Solo, op.20. Nonetheless, these works are characteristic of Mendelssohn’s sustained study and exploration of Classical sonata form, which the composer regarded as the be-all and end-all of instrumental music.

Pianist Elżbieta Sternlicht began her studies at the State Music Academy in Warsaw. After several years of artistic activity in Paris, Sternlicht moved to Berlin in 1977, where she is a freelance musician and a lecturer at the Universität der Künste. She has also released two world premiere CD recordings of the complete solo piano works of Josef Koffler (Acte Préalable), and world premieer recording of the complete solo piano works of Arnold Mendelssohn (Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2017).