An eminent member the French musical establishment during the 1870s and 1880s, Louis Théodore Gouvy wrote a large amount of piano music, much of it for four hands. The three Sonatas written in the 1860s reveal his considerable technical command as well as a flowing elegance, some of it reminiscent of Schubert and Schumann.

Listen to an excerpt from the album

Sonata in D minor, Op. 36 (1861)
1 I. Allegro moderato (09:20)
2 II. Adagio (07:30)
3 III. Intermezzo: Allegretto – (04:43)
4 IV. Épilogue: Moderato assai quasi larghetto (04:58)

Sonata in C minor, Op. 49 (1869)
5 I. Allegro moderato (10:18)
6 II. Larghetto (09:50)
7 III. Menuetto: Moderato (04:12)
8 IV. Finale: Allegro vivace (05:27)

Sonata in F major, Op. 51 (1870)
9 I. Allegro con brio (09:19)
10 II. Andantino scherzoso (03:59)
11 III. Allegro risoluto (06:47)

TOTAL TIME: 76:23

Emile Naoumoff revealed himself as a musical prodigy at the age of five, taking up the piano and adding composition to his studies a year later. At the age of seven, he became the last disciple of Nadia Boulanger, who referred to him as “The gift of my old age”, and studied with her until her death in 1979, also working with Igor Markevitch, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Françaix, Leonard Bernstein, Soulima Stravinsky, Aram Khachaturian and Yehudi Menhuin. He has enjoyed a long and succesful career as a performer, composer and teacher, and since 1998 has served as a professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. www.emilenaoumoff.com

Yau Cheng has held positions as a Leverhulme Artist and Junior Fellow in Piano Accompaniment at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She earned both her Master and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (USA), under the tutelage of Emile Naoumoff, and was a pupil of Nancy Loo and Mimi Li in Hong Kong and Caroline Palmer in London. She enjoys an active career as an accompanist in master-classes and as a répétiteur and collaborative pianist for opera venues, companies and individual musicians. www.yaucheng.com