The Latvian composer Jānis Ķepītis (1908–89) has a fairly low profile even in his home country, never mind beyond its borders. His output was nonetheless substantial, with no fewer than six symphonies to his name, ten concertos, a number of large-scale choral-orchestral pieces, countless songs and choruses and a voluminous body of chamber music – almost all of it unknown. Ķepītis was himself a gifted pianist, and his hundred or so compositions for piano show a predilection for the miniature. The works here, most of them discovered among his manuscripts, inhabit a world downstream from Scriabin and Rachmaninov, with a gentle hint of Debussy, an occasional wisp of Latvian folk-music, and, here and there, just a hint of jazz.

“These are simply well-crafted pieces written for the sheer joy of creation. Nora Lūse plays with sympathy and enthusiasm. These may be small pieces, but she takes them seriously. And in the process reveals some marvellous miniatures of beauty.” – Ralph Graves, WTJU Charlottesville Classical (Vol.1: TOCC0721)