Hungarian pianist Martin Tchiba is well known for his eclectic approach to the music that he performs and this new CD certainly reflects this. The selection of pieces featured on ‘Linkages’ has been chosen to represent a musical and emotional journey from the romantic period, represented by Liszt and Brahms, via the exotic sounds of Scriabin and the atonal and serial developments of Schoenberg, through to the modernism of German composer Helmut Lachenmann.

Martin Tchiba was born in Budapest in 1982 and grew up in Germany. Although his repertoire contains works from all epochs, with the music from the Romantic to the present occupying a special position, he is particularly known for tracking down forgotten masterpieces, and giving first performances of new works, several of which have been dedicated to him. Martin Tchiba has made a number of highly regarded recordings over the last few years including CDs for Naxos and Hungaroton.

Although the works on this new disc are very different, and the programme contains pieces written over a period of 102 years (1861 to 1963), the music itself is unified by a wealth of unexpected relationships and subtle interconnections. The sequence of the works and the transitions between them are chosen intentionally, representing a journey from Romanticism to Modernism paved with moments of restlessness and of tranquillity.