SOPHIE-CARMEN ECKHARDT-GRAMATTÉ (1899-1974): Piano Sonatas No. 1, No. 2 "Die Biscaya Sonate", No. 3, No. 4 "Die Befreite Sonate", No. 5 "Klavierstück" and No. 6 "3 Klavierstücke".

Description: If you missed out on this prodigiously gifted composer-performer's Cook's Tour of 20th-century musical idioms at full price, now's your chance at mid-price. Eckhardt-Gramatté adhered to a predominantly tonal idiom, with neo-baroque and neoclassical elements and programmatic romanticism giving way to a more chromatic full-blooded romanticism in the middle sonatas and some mild dodecaphonic experimentation in the otherwise tonal and romantic Fifth. The Sixth ingeniously combines a tonal left-hand study (borrowed from the Fourth sonata of two decades earlier) with an atonal fantasy for right hand, in a technical tour de force of a finale. 2 CDs. Mid-price. Marc-André Hamelin (piano). Original 1991 Altarus release.