Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was the youngest of six children born to Wolfgang Amadeus and his wife Constanze. Franz Xaver’s style was early Romantic, with compositions that were highly regarded by his contemporaries Schubert and Schumann. The Polonaise mélancolique was an ideal medium for Franz Xaver’s expressive melodies, and with some pieces anticipating Chopin, the Op.17 collection forms a satisfying and substantial cycle. All of these works helped to establish Franz Xaver Mozart throughout Europe as a formidable concert pianist and composer.

The name Franz Xaver Mozart is inevitably overshadowed by his father Wolfgang Amadeus, and this was not helped in his lifetime by his own introverted character and self-deprecation. Best known in just a few recordings of his two piano concertos, chamber music and vocal works, this release of Mozart’s complete Polonaises reveals a composer capable of being ahead of his time, with at times dramatic writing and an approach to tonality comparable with that of his friend Schubert. The variety and inventiveness of these works heard in their entirety will be a refreshing discovery to collectors of fine piano music, helping to reinforce the reputation of just one of those neglected composers who awkwardly occupy so-called ‘transitional’ periods in music history.

This release enters a sparsely populated catalogue. Cyprien Katsaris’s 2004 recording on the Piano21 label of the Polonaise mélancolique in E minor, op.17 no.2, is listed as a world première, and there are one or two alternatives including a Sony Classics album from Yaara Tal with the Op.17 and Op.22 sets, the only other complete version being recorded on fortepiano on a 2014 album on the Musicaphon label with Susanne von Laun.

Acclaimed as a performer of ‘astonishing lucidity and coherence’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘true musicianship’ (International Piano), British pianist Robert Markham was a finalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Markham regularly appears as a concerto soloist in the UK and abroad, and has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, London Mozart Players and Israel Chamber Orchestra. He studied with Heather Slade-Lipkin at Chetham’s School of Music and Oxana Yablonskaya at The Juilliard School, from where he holds a Doctorate. He currently serves as senior tutor in solo and collaborative piano at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where, as a staff researcher, he has conducted research into the life and works of Franz Xaver Mozart. He has made recordings with labels including Conifer and Sonora Records, as well as a ‘beautifully played recording’ (Fanfare) for Naxos of Piano Works for Four Hands by Schubert (8572699) with John Humphreys.