A student of John Field, Charles Mayer (1799–1862) was a brilliant pianist and teacher who performed throughout Europe and composed prolifically for his instrument. Both the Jugendblüten (‘Flowers of Youth’) and Jugendträume (‘Dreams of Youth’) collections reflect the evocative titles and late-Romantic expressive style fashionably represented by Schumann and Mendelssohn. Mayer’s beautifully crafted musical gems were aimed at pianists eager to widen their repertoire and entertain through, in the words of Schumann, the ‘rich and eclectic imagination of a cosmopolitan musician’ whose works ‘tell with affection and sincerity the story of a bourgeois world made of dreams and good will’.

Luigi Gerosa has appeared in Italy and internationally both as a soloist, with a repertoire spanning from Bach to the most important romantic composers, and in the chamber field, with a particular interest in the Lieder literature and the works of Rachmaninov, Schubert and Schumann. He has recorded for Dynamic with four world-première programmes of works by Johann Samuel Schröter, Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner and Stephen Heller.