Do you know Charles Villiers Stanford?

If not; here is a wonderful opportunity to fill this gap: Irish pianist Finghin Collins (author of several Claves albums; among which volumes 1 and 3 of the Schumann collection) and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra co-sign with the Swiss label a magnificent recording completely dedicated to this …. Irish composer!

Son of a protestant lawyer; Stanford went to Queen's College in Cambridge and Trinity College; Dublin; then left for Leipzig to study with Reinecke and Kiel. Most of his life and work were associated with Cambridge; where he was a prominent actor of the University Music Society; and with London's Royal College of Music; where he taught composition right from the opening of the establishment in 1883. He is to be thanked for the first English auditions of numerous Romantic masterpieces – such as Brahms' First Symphony in 1877 – and for highly original symphonic arrangements of Hymns for the Anglican liturgy.

Among his own productions; « The Revenge » - a choral ballad written for the Leeds Festival – remained an absolute favourite with British choirs for many years. Featured on Finghin Collins's CD; his 2nd Piano Concerto also dates from the 1910 Leeds Festival; where Sergueï Rachmaninov interpreted his 2nd Concerto himself. The work is dedicated to Ukranian pianist Moritz Rosenthal. The Concert Variations upon an English Theme "Down Among the Dead Men"; on the other hand; date from 1898 and were written for Leonard Borwick; an English pianist and former pupil of Clara Schumann.