Von Bülow 2

Hans von Bülow (1830-94) was a celebrated pianist (pupil of Liszt and dedicatee and first performer of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto) and conductor (he gave the premières of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Meistersinger and Brahms's Fourth Symphony). He married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who famously left him for Wagner, whose music Bülow – equally famously – continued to espouse. As a composer Bülow was praised by Liszt and Wagner, although posterity has been less kind. This second disc of mostly light pieces from Mark Anderson, fourth prizewinner in the 1988 Dublin International Piano Competition, shows a capable, showy composer struggling to balance earnest inclinations with freedom of manner in ways that Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsodies) and Brahms (Hungarian Dances) had down pat. url.ie/6c45