Many will nod in recognition of the name Emil von Sauer, one of the great keyboard lions of the past. But Emil von Sauer the composer? Perhaps some transcriptions and arrangements? But no! The man also composed “real” music, including these 20 enormously virtuoso studies. It’s not great music because there isn’t much in the way of memorable melodic and harmonic material. In brief, there’s no personality. But is pianistically idiomatic, and that in itself justifies the existence of this CD.

We’re here presented with the elite of piano technique here and it is in itself entertaining to hear a man perform what appears to be impossible. Oleg Marshev, who has also recorded what must be the finest recording of Prokofiev’s complete piano works (also for Danacord), plays these impossible studies so one gasps for breath, and he actually succeeds in extracting music from them! Listen and wonder!