BENJAMIN GODARD (1849-1895): Barcarolles No. 2 in F, Op. 80 and No. 3 in B Flat, Op. 105, 20 Pièces, Op. 58, Des scènes italiennes, Op. 126.

Description: Although he was a violinist, more than half of Godard's 150-odd opus numbers contain solo piano pieces, possibly a result of a need for funds occasioned by his family's financial setbacks resulting from the Franco-Prussian War. While famous personages such as Proust and less famous ones like the American composer Henry Holden Huss disparaged his songs and piano pieces as sweet and sentimental, it remains the case that Godard was very good at writing "sweet" and "sentimental" piano pieces which are not condescending and which are finely crafted and often touching. The hour's worth of Pièces, each dedicated to a friend or pupil, take up the majority of a well-filled 81-minute disc and could easily wear the description quoted in the notes of a "musician of the autumn, of the twilight hours, [who] can conjure up visions of the past, stir up memories of forgotten days". Alessandro Deljavan (piano).