This disc of songs without words – some too familiar (Schubert’s Ständchen; Liszt’s Liebestraum No 3), some charmingly unfamiliar (Zdenĕk Fibich’s Andante from his Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs; Vítĕzslav Novák’s Serenáda Op 9, No 3) – forms part of a wider project designed to encourage contemporary explorations of the love song genre. The pianist William Howard will shortly launch a competition for today’s composers to provide new expressions of ecstatic joy to join those played so winningly here, particularly the sensual Maiden and the Nightingale from Goyescas by Granados and Kreisler’s evergreen arrangement of Rachmaninov’s Liebesleid.
