Piano Music: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 / 24 Interludes / Invenciones (excerpts) / Mephisto

With symphonies, string quartets, chamber concertos, an opera and a large amount of piano music to his name, Jesús Rueda is one of Spain's foremost living composers. Drawing on intensive studies of Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev, his piano compositions run the gamut from dazzling pyrotechnical displays, as in Mephisto, modelled on Liszt's famous first waltz, and the two Sonatas, the second of which is influenced by jazz and Balinese Kecak dance rhythms, to the ravishingly sensuous tonal palette of the 24 Interludes and the relatively simple yet attractive Inventions for children. This is music which is not only highly individual in its blending of 'classical' and contemporary elements but richly expressive and communicative.