American pianist Peter Orth’s second recording for Challenge Classics pairs Scriabin’s 24 Preludes, Op.11 with Rachmaninov’s Sonata No.1. The former pieces have been “a constant companion” since, as a schoolboy, he heard Gina Bachauer play them in Carnegie Hall and now he’s recorded them for the Scriabin centenary in 2015.

Winning First Prize in the 1979 Naumburg International Piano Competition catapulted Peter Orth into the American musical mainstream with a highly acclaimed recital debut in Alice Tully Hall. Not long afterwards he was awarded the Shura Cherkassky Prize by the 92nd Street Y in New York and the Fanny Peabody Mason Award in Boston. Since that time, he has been heard as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Detroit, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Saint Louis.

Since moving to Cologne in 1992, Mr Orth’s European reputation has grown apace by appearing in such distinguished venues as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany. He maintains a special relationship with Italy, where he plays regularly. He conducted two concertos from the keyboard with the Orchestra of the Ukraine at Tignano Castle outside Florence, where he has been the director of Friends of Music at Tignano. He is the Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the Hochschule for Music in Detmold, Germany.