Anton Rubinstein’s remarkable virtuoso career during the 19th century coincided almost exactly with the final developments of the modern piano. The increasing popularity of the instrument combined with Rubinstein’s formidable execution earned him enormous popularity as a performer. The Six Preludes and Fugues in Free Style are major works, each piece dedicated and alluding to famous composers and performers of the day. The charming Three Pieces are small-scale character works, while the Concert Étude in C major is a witty display piece in which ‘wrong notes’ are instantly corrected, like an errant pupil attempting to disguise mistakes.

This release is the second of two albums, following on from Martin Cousin’s previous programme of Anton Rubinstein’s Preludes and Etudes (8574426) released in February 2023. Previous solo piano recordings of works by Anton Rubinstein on the Naxos label include Le Bal (8.574216) played by Warren Lee and summed up as ‘stunning and imaginative’ by MusicWeb International, and his Piano Sonatas (8573989) played by Han Chen, described as ‘forthright, effective, and often original’ in Records International.

Pianist Martin Cousin is regarded as one of the most exceptional pianists of his generation, having been awarded First Prize at the 2005 Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition (Seregno, Italy) and the Gold Medal at the 2003 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition (London). His recordings on the SOMM label have received wide acclaim, and his disc of Rachmaninov's Études-Tableaux was released in 2014 and was proclaimed ‘a landmark recording’ by The Observer with a 5-star review. Classical Source added, ‘This is one of the best solo piano records I have heard for a very long time…’