Martin Roscoe - Carl Nielsen: Complete Piano Music (2008)

Though perhaps not the finest recordings of some of the better known works here -- the competition from John Ogdon and Leif Ove Andsnes is particularly stiff -- Martin Roscoe's effort includes everything Nielsen wrote for the instrument including pieces so rarely recorded as to be nearly unknown to all but the most devoted Nielsen aficionado. Where else, for example, can one go to hear both books of the composer's light and lively Piano Music for Young and Old and his grandiose and grandiloquent Festival Prelude for the New Century? Roscoe's performances of these works, indeed, his performances of all the works here, are never less than persuasive. With his powerful technique and refined tone, he's appropriately intimate in the Grieg-inspired Five Piano Pieces as well as appropriately monumental in the craggy Chaconne. And though those who know Ogdon's terrifying Chaconne and Andsnes' frightening "Lucifer" Suite may find Roscoe's readings don't pack quite the same emotional punch, those who want to hear Nielsen's charming contrapuntal fantasy called A Dream about "Silent Night" will perforce have to dip into this set. Hyperion's sound is full, detailed, and deep. -- James Leonard