Jens Barnieck - Friedrich Gernsheim: Piano Music, Volume One

Friedrich Gernsheim (1839�1916), born in Worms, on the Rhine, grew up to be one of the most formidable musicians of his age: composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Even as a teenager, Gernsheim was attracting attention as a virtuoso-composer, earning comparisons with Mozart. These two early piano sonatas � restored by Jens Barnieck from Gernsheim�s manuscripts � combine youthful freshness with praeternatural assuredness, showing awareness of Schumann and anticipating Brahms. By the time of the Six Preludes, written a decade later, Chopin has become the dominant star in Gernsheim�s firmament.