Sonata in B flat minor (1900)
Two Mazurkas (nos 1 & 2)
Waltz no. 4 in B flat (Valse de Concert)
2nd Valse-Caprice (after Taneyev) ’
Nocturne no 2 ’
Scherzo no. 1 in B minor
The Lark (after Glinka)

Pianist Danny Driver has garnered overwhelming critical praise – and a Gramophone award nomination – for his previous discs for Hyperion. His authoritative and virtuosic performances of York Bowen and CPE Bach have placed him firmly in the ‘one to watch’ category. For his latest disc, he turns to one of the giants of the Russian piano world. This disc looks beyond the ubiquitous ‘Islamey’ to some of Balakirev’s most important works – which are curiously underrepresented on disc. The Piano Sonata in B flat minor is a major achievement of the period and one quite unlike any contemporary large-scale piano composition. Its absence from the standard repertoire is unfortunate, as it is fully worthy of such a place. Undoubtedly this marvellous recording will provoke a reappraisal.

GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE DAILY TELEGRAPH CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK

‘Danny Driver, a recent addition to Hyperion’s bejewelled roster of pianists, makes his superlative case for music that is as inventive as it is unsettling. Playing with imperturbable authority, he captures all the mercurial fits and starts of the G minor Sonata … It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver’s impeccable technique and musicianship, and also a warmth missing from Pletnev’s earlier and razor-sharp recital … This is one of the finest of all recent keyboard issues and Hyperion’s sound and presentation are ideal’ (Gramophone) ‘Listening to this extraordinary music, it is easy to understand why the audiences who first heard it in the 1740s were thrilled and bewildered in equal measure … Driver meets the interpretative challenges with a lively mind, dexterity and warm sensibility in a way that brings CPE Bach’s startling originality sharply into focus’ (The Daily Telegraph)