A super-budget compendium to reward all adventurous listeners, surveying the full spectrum of North American piano music in glowingly reviewed modern recordings. From the Romantic tone-poetry of Amy Beach, to the blocks of pianistic granite cut by Charles Ives; from the catchy songs and showtunes of Gershwin to the enigmatic patterns of Adams and Glass; from the searching, Bartókian accents of Barber to the playful tributes of Bernstein; this 10-CD box embraces multitudes.

In the late 19th century, American composers such as Amy Beach and Edward MacDowell began to make an American history of classical music from scratch by borrowing from European models. Trained in those models, Charles Ives would upend them in search of a personal and distinctively American expression in the mould of Whitman’s poetry, defiant and visionary in expression.

In the 1920s and 30s, George Gershwin went on to connect and combine the music hall and concert hall in a fusion of genius between the classical tradition, ragtime, jazz, stride and blues. After the war, Leonard Bernstein would follow in his footsteps, bringing audiences together in a common language of music. While Samuel Barber, and notable predecessors such as Charles Griffes, put a lyrical spin on European modernism, the minimalists of the 60s turned their backs on Europe and looked within the stuff of pure rhythm for inspiration.

In the late 70s, the China Gates and Phrygian Gates of John Adams were instrumental in defining a new voice for the piano, divorced from the Romantic tradition yet at liberty to play with its harmony and beauty. In our current century, the Etudes of Philip Glass have become a part of the modern repertoire for pianists (alongside the Etudes of Ligeti) in a surprising creative evolution for a composer best known for his operas and film scores.

All these developments are represented in this Explorer Edition from Piano Classics, alongside much less familiar names such as Arthur Whiting and Margaret Ruthven Lang. Almost all the recordings have been made within the last decade by pianists immersed in the composers’ disparate idioms, and they attracted critical praise when initially released.

‘This beautifully conceived program... performed with perfect sensitivity by the pianist, and played on an unusual but undeniably authentic piano. I have no reservations whatsoever. This is a class act.’ – Fanfare on Artem Belogurov

‘A great American duet program… played to the hilt here’ – Fanfare on Emma Abbate/Julian Perkins

‘Glass’s études seem to have something enduring to say, and van Veen’s exact yet humanistic playing facilitates the delivery of those messages to us.’ – Fanfare on Jeroen van Veen