The largest CD collection of nocturnes for piano, celebrating the art of the romantic piano song without words.

18th century composers such as Haydn and Mozart wrote nocturnes as serenades to be sung and played at night time, both on an operatic stage and as stand-alone pieces for entertainment. The beginning of the 19th century saw a rapid technical, cultural and musical development of the piano - it became an instrument with greater carrying capacity and volume than before, offering a wider range of timbres and opening up the possibility for composers to write quasi-orchestrally for a single instrument, as Baroque composers had done for the organ. At the same time, musical forms became looser and more influenced by extra-musical inspirations from literature, poetry and the natural world. The Irish composer John Field was the first to publish nocturnes for solo piano as independent works rather than as poetic interludes within larger works such as suites or sonatas. Frederic Chopin, who had inherited the form from Field, raised the nocturne to new heights of inner expression. Just as the salon became a place for pianistic performance, it also became a place of quiet soliloquy during the 19th century, accessible to the rapidly expanding bourgeoisie who had access to an instrument at home and the training to play it. Thus, publishers commissioned nocturnes from composers great and small to serve an ever-growing market. The nocturnes in this box include all the big names in Romantic piano literature, as well as many lesser-known ones. Many of the performances are played on period instruments, allowing the listener to immerse themselves in a 19th century world of gentler and softer colors and expression. This new box also includes an essay by Peter Quantrill outlining the history of the nocturne and its enduring effect on our affections and imagination.

John Field: Nocturnes Nr. 1-18
+Frederic Chopin: Nocturnes Nr. 1-21
+Gabriel Faure: Nocturnes Nr. 1-13
+Michael Glinka: Nocturnes f-moll "La Separation", Es-Dur, Es-Dur
+Karl Eduard Hartknoch: Nocturne op. 8 Nr. 2
+Anton Rubinstein: Nocturnes op. 28 Nr. 1; op. 68 Nr. 2; op. 71 Nr. 1; Nocturne sur l'eau aus op. 9; Nocturne (moderato assai) aus op. 50
+Peter Tschaikowsky: Nocturnes op. 10 Nr. 1 & op. 19 Nr. 4
+Alexander Scriabin: Nocturnes WoO 3; op. 5 Nr. 1 & 2; op. 9 Nr. 2
+Konstantin Antipov: Nocturnes op. 6 Nr. 2 & op. 12
+Alexander Glasunow: Nocturne op. 97
+Vasily Kalinnikov: Nocturne Nr. 3
+Charles Henri Valentin Alkan: Nocturnes Nr. 1-3; op. 22; Notturino innamorato op. 63 Nr. 43
+Claude Debussy: Nocturne Des-Dur
+Louis Vierne: Nocturne op. 35 Nr. 3
+Reynaldo Hahn: Tristess nocturne "L'Oiseau de nuit"; Reverie nocturne sur le Bosphore
+Francis Poulenc: 8 Nocturnes
+Erik Satie: Nocturnes I-V
+Louis Aubert: Esquisse op. 7 Nr. 2 "Nocturne"
+Germaine Tailleferre: Notturno (Andantino) aus Partita pour piano
+Sergej Rachmaninoff: Nocturnes c-moll, F-Dur, fis-moll; Morceau de salon op. 10 Nr. 1 "Nocturne"
+Mily Balakireff: Nocturnes Nr. 1-3
+Alexander Borodin: Nocturne (Andantino) aus Petite Suite
+Edvard Grieg: Nocturne op. 54 Nr. 4
+Dora Pejacevic: Nocturnes Nr. 1 "Sehr ruhig" & Nr. 2 "Leicht bewegt"
+George Enescu: Carillon nocturne aus Suite Nr. 3 op. 18
+Fanny Mendelssohn: Nocturne g-moll; Nocturne neapolitano h-moll
+Clara Schumann: Nocturne op. 6 Nr. 2
+Giovanni Sgambati: Nocturnes op. 20 Nr. 1-3; op. 31; op. 33; Nocturne "per l'Album di Bellini"
+Giuseppe Martucci: Nocturnes op. 70 Nr. 1 & 2
+Amilcare Ponchielli: Notturno op. 93 Nr. 1
+Amy Beach: Nocturne op. 107
+Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Notturno aus Fantasy Pieces op. 6
+Francesco Cilea: Notturno op. 22
+Ottorino Respighi: Notturno aus 6 Klavierstücke
+Franz Liszt: Nocturne "En reve"; Nocturne Nr. 2 "Liebestraum"; Nocturne "Les cloches de Geneve" aus Annees de pelerinage
+Sergei Bortkiewicz: Morceau op. 24 Nr. 1 "Nocturne" (Diana)
+Josef Bohuslav Foerster: Notturno für Klavier linke Hand op. 142 Nr. 1
+Camille Pleyel: Nocturne alla Field
+Friedrich Kalkbrenner: Nocturnes op. 121 Nr. 1 & 2
+Louis Lefebure-Wely: Nocturne op. 54
+Edmond Weber: Nocturne op. 1
+Maria Szymanowska: Nocturne "La murmure"
+Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturnes op. 24 Nr. 1 & 2; Pozegnanie Nocturne g-moll