Karol Rathaus (1895–1954), born on the eastern fringes of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, was one of the myriad Jewish composers who had to abandon a successful career in Europe, where he wrote for stage, screen and concert hall, and flee to the USA; there he earned his living in academia, working in obscurity. This first recording of his piano music reveals a powerful and individual voice, where echoes of his distant homeland colour a musical language that is striking for its harmonic tension and rhythmic energy.

Daniel Wnukowski is a Polish-Canadian pianist whose interest in the piano began at age three, when he saw a grand piano with a clear glass cabinet and became fascinated with intricate details of its mechanism. The music of inter-war Jewish composers occupies a special place in his repertoire, especially that of the generation of Polish-Jewish composers which came of age around the time of World War I and was devastated by the rise of Nazism. He is the recipient of numerous scholarships and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and other foundations for researching and performing the works of Jewish composers such as Józef Koffler, Szymon Laks, Władysław Szpilman and Viktor Ullmann.