Pianist Mitsuko Saruwatari’s 3rd DSD release at NativeDSD Music on the Etcetera music label is a World Premiere Recording of Solo Piano Pieces Vol. II composed by Wilhelm Berger. It follows her earlier album of World Premiere Recordings of Berger’s Solo Piano Pieces Vol. I and The Poet (also available from NativeDSD Music and linked below).

Wilhelm Berger was a German composer of the late Romantic period who grew up in Bremen and studied in Berlin. He went onto compose more than one hundred works: Gustav Ernst, who wrote biographies of composers, Berger included, at the beginning of the 20th century, wrote concerning his music: “Music […] that combines grace and seriousness, comprehensibility and depth, Mozartian grace and modernity to a rare degree”.

Fugues occur throughout Berger’s works and are therefore given pride of place on this new album. The Introduction and Fuge op. 42 is one of his most prestigious and important works. The exceptional quality of Berger’s contrapuntal works demands and here receives a new recording, one that breathes new life into this music.

Mitsuko Saruwatari – Piano