Recital Gems from Chautauqua
Fleur de Son Classics 57956

Recital Gems from Chautauqua features the artistry and deeply poetic  insight of pianist Rebecca Penneys. If 'Chautauqua' sounds like a blast from the past, it's the place in  upstate New York where folks used to go in the nineteenth century to listen to lectures by Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, and their ilk. Later, it became the location of a flourishing art colony that exists to  this day. If you had to troop up to Chautauqua to hear these piano gems, it would be well worth the  excursion. 

Or, you can listen on CD to a program that begins auspiciously with the folksy charm of  Bartok's Hungarian Peasant Songs, then the delicate sentiments of Mozart's Sonata in C Major, K.  330 plus four sprightly Mazurkas and the moody Polonaise Fantaisie by Chopin. But that's not all.  Penneys follows with Debussy's picturesque Suite Bergamasque, including the ever-popular 'Claire de  Lune', followed by two modern pieces by William Bolcom (Old Adam) and William Albright  (Sleepwalker's Shuffle) that prove the gentle art of the piano rag is not mouldin' in the grave with Scott  Joplin. Finally, two brilliant transcriptions by Franz Liszt of Robert Schumann songs close out the  program in smashing style. Brava, Rebecca Penneys! This is the way the piano should be played -- and  recorded.