Friedrich Gernsheim (1839–1916), born in Worms, on the Rhine, grew up to be one of the most formidable musicians of his age: composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Even as a teenager, Gernsheim was attracting attention as a virtuoso-composer, earning comparisons with Mozart. These two early piano sonatas – restored by Jens Barnieck from Gernsheim’s manuscripts – combine youthful freshness with praeternatural assuredness, showing awareness of Schumann and anticipating Brahms. By the time of the Six Preludes, written a decade later, Chopin has become the dominant star in Gernsheim’s firmament.

Jens Barnieck, born in Wiesbaden, Germany, has performed in major concert halls and festivals, across Europe and further afield, and made numerous radio and television recordings. He is also a music journalist, writing on musicians as diverse as Charles Ives, Dane Rudhyar and Ruth Crawford Seeger. He studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Gregor Weichert and the State University of New York at Buffalo with American pianist and composer Yvar Mikhashoff.