Many years ago, I chanced on a mono LP called A Portrait of the Waltz with Igor Markevich and Walter Legge’s Philharmonia orchestra in its glory days. As an early example of the “concept” disc It featured rarities like Busoni’s Tanzwaltzer, and Chabrier’s Fête Polonaise (really an inebriated waltz despite its title) and nothing by the Strauss family. 

I was reminded of this when asked to review the Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki’s CD of the evolution of the Prelude through the centuries, beginning with Bach’s C minor and C major Preludes from The Well-Tempered Clavier. Bach’s Preludes were indeed introductions to Fugues, but Lisiecki goes on to demonstrate how the Prelude developed in the hands of later composers as a vehicle for a powerful spectrum of emotions and atmospheres. The result is an intelligent, imaginative and intriguing showcase for the genre’s creative evolution. 

The works by the other composers on the CD – Chopin, Rachmaninov, Messiaen – are standalone character pieces, although some share opus numbers. Chopin revived the genre a century...