Wilhelm Stenhammar: The Complete Solo Piano Music, Volume 2

Stenhammar's music, like most works by Scandinavian composers of substance, is far less well known than it ought to be. These pieces, though, have just the right degree of obscurity--almost total--and shouldn't have been disturbed. Frankly, they are juvenilia; the First Sonata was written when the composer was ten, the Fourth when he was nineteen, and there aren't enough original moments among them to fill a thimble. Do investigate BIS's Stenhammar series if you like late Romantic music, but leave this release to doctoral students.--Leslie Gerber