Tomes's solo debut on Hyperion forms a counterpart to her book 'Women and the Piano' (Yale University Press, 2024), which documents the history, music and lives of female pianists across the years. Here Schumann, Mendelssohn and Chaminade feature alongside US master Amy Beach. But surprises are aplenty, including a 'Sonata in A Major' by Haydn's earliest piano pupil Marianne Martínez, and a 'Caprice' by Polish virtuoso Maria Szymanowska, who courageously toured Europe and was appointed first-ever pianist to the Tsarina's St. Petersburg court. An intoxicating 'Romance' by Sophie Menter (Liszt's favourite pupil, whom he referred to as 'the piano itself') is followed by an 1869 work by Venezuelan Teresa Carreño, whose 'Un bal en rêve' appears to contain a reference to the tune of 'Happy Birthday', seemingly 30 years before its publication! The startling finale belongs to Raie da Costa, among the most famous light-music pianists of the age, whose short recording career encompassed no fewer than 100 albums for HMV Parlophone before her untimely death in 1934.
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