For the Offenbach Year we are rereleasing three CDs originally produced separately – now in a box at a special low price! The focus of course is formed by Offenbach’s waltzes and polkas – once again showing that there is more to Offenbach than the cliché of “a cancan-mad man”. This edition contains some previously entirely unknown compositions by him. Of course the inherent clarity of their musical language creates carefree, entertaining, and exciting miniatures. But behind their pleasantness a composer schooled on classical models and a master of his trade is revealed. Along with his authentic piano waltzes of simple formal delineation, which, however, prove to be astonishingly multifaceted in their melodic invention with surprise effects, the programme also includes waltz arrangements. Offenbach himself comes forward as an arranger, and the virtuoso interpreter on these CDs, Marco Sollini, follows in the footsteps of the arrangers of the nineteenth century with his own version of Olympia’s coloratura aria from The Tales of Hoffmann. Sollini, who has played his way to renown as an interpreter of unknown piano music by very well-known composers, once again succeeds in producing dance-like interpretations with lively rhythms.