Michael Brough - Michael Brough: 25 Picture-Preludes for Piano, Op. 19

The English composer Michael Brough (born in Yorkshire, in northern England, in 1960) is rather an unusual character: he is also a full-time solicitor. Late in 2013, with a commission from the Swaledale Festival, he sat down at his piano sat down at his piano and began to improvise the first of what would become 25 Picture-Preludes, in the major and minor keys. Like Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux and Medtner's Skazki, these short pieces are intended to stimulate a response in the listener's imagination. Rachmaninov and Medtner are audible influences on Brough's bluesy, late-Romantic musical language. This recording was made on the �Bosendorfer 290', a piano with an extended range in the bass.