I received this CD from Edward Rosser himself, who I must confess, was not known to me before our correspondence. After putting the CD in the player, I really was oblivious of everything else, such is the committed and original delivery of Rosser's piano playing.
The programme is also wisely chosen beginning and ending with Debussy with Schubert, Chopin and Schumann in between.
Rosser is not a pianist that one can classify or put into a specific compartment. He sweeps through the Debussy pieces with a nonchalance that is almost disarming but his keyboard touch is indeed lithe and very beautiful. I greatly enjoyed the substantial Chopin pieces especially the lovely Nocturne in C Sharp minor, a masterpiece of interpretation.
Schumann's 'Scenes from Childhood' are full of nostalgic beauty and are permeated with that wistful longing of a vanished age. Rosser plumbs their depths to the full, creating an atmosphere of wonderful surreality, this is to my mind, the high point of the disc.
As already said, I received the disc from Mr. Rosser himself so I don't know what the distribution arrangements are. The recording is exemplary, with not too much reverberation and an almost ideal acoustic. This is a disc for all pianophiles who wish to experience a recital with a difference. I urge Edward Rosser to move on to more works in the piano canon, some Beethoven or Haydn perhaps?
Copyright © 2005, Gerald Fenech