*** CARL LOEWE: Three Piano Sonatas, Opus 16, Opus 32 and Opus 47. Cord Garben, piano. (CPO).

At the stylistic, pre-Romantic juncture where the works of Weber, Czerny, Schubert and Beethoven meet, Loewe (1796-1869) and his oeuvre reside. Once a noted lied writer whose songs were performed regularly on the world’s recital stages, Loewe today is virtually forgotten outside Germany.

These three imaginative and idiomatic piano sonatas are mildly engaging, but they aren’t going to change Loewe’s repertorial fortunes. The E-major, Opus 16 (1829), the most pristine and Schubertian among them, flows outward in a gorgeous stream of melody, and includes a slow movement in which male and female singers contribute solo strophes of special charm. Garben plays this sometimes difficult and virtuosic music without strain, letting it speak its piece with an ennobling grace.

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