Émile Jaques-Dalcroze: Piano Music, Volume 3

Jaques-Dalcroze: Piano Music, Vol. 3 – Works for Piano Solo and Piano Duet

The Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950) is best remembered for his development of Eurhythmics, which teaches the appreciation of music through movement. The buoyant miniatures recorded here document his fascination with dance, including a flirtation with jazz and ragtime, although the apparent innocence of the music conceals a striking degree of metrical and rhythmic complexity, cast in a style that owes something to Debussy and Fauré – animated by the blithe spirit of Chabrier. Xavier Parés, a native of Barcelona, and Patricia Seiffert, from Fribourg, in Switzerland, have their own concert careers but both also teach at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva.