Franz Xaver Mozart, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation. This album contains his largest work for solo piano, the Piano Sonata in G major – an assured, distinctive piece that balances dance with drive. His most virtuosic work is the exuberant Fantasy on a Russian Song and a Krakowiak, while his mischievous Variations on a Russian Theme and the variations on his father’s Don Giovanni illustrate Franz Xaver’s great gifts for elaboration and playfulness. Robert Markham, who has conducted research into the life and music of Franz Xaver Mozart, has been hailed as a performer of ‘astonishing lucidity and coherence’ by Musical Opinion.

Acclaimed as a performer of ‘astonishing lucidity and coherence’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘true musicianship’ (International Piano), British pianist Robert Markham was a finalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Markham regularly appears as a concerto soloist in the UK and abroad, and has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, London Mozart Players and Israel Chamber Orchestra. He studied with Heather Slade-Lipkin at Chetham’s School of Music and Oxana Yablonskaya at The Juilliard School, from where he holds a Doctorate. He currently serves as senior tutor in solo and collaborative piano at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where, as a staff researcher, he has conducted research into the life and works of Franz Xaver Mozart.