Professor Robert Greenerg

Robert "Bob" Hurst's 2013 album Bob: A Palindrome follows up the bassist's 2010 studio album Bob Ya Head. Recorded in 2001, the album's release was delayed by 9/11, as well as Hurst's own busy career as a highly sought-after sideman and professor of music at the University of Michigan. Joining Hurst here are such longtime associates as saxophonist Branford Marsalis, drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, flutist and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, pianist Robert Glasper, and percussionist Adam Rudolph. With all the songs composed and arranged by Hurst, including the epic mid-album Duke Ellington-style three-part "Middle Passage Suite," Bob: A Palindrome is a superb showcase for Hurst's improvisational skill, songwriting ability, and talent for assembling an all-star band. This is urbane, highly creative, and straight-ahead modern jazz at its finest.

The English harpsichordist, organist and fortepianist, Robert Woolley, studied at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London with Ruth Dyson (1970-1975), attended master-classes given by Kenneth Gilbert and George Malcolm, and made his debut in London in 1976.

These bracing, unorthodox fortepiano readings of Mozart's first three keyboard sonatas are the first in a series by Robert Levin, a professor at Harvard University. Levin is among the first players to use the fortepiano's agility in the service of speed and flash. His Mozart is quick, jumpy, technically impressive, and distinctly unlyrical – "un-Mozartian" will be the first reaction for many listeners. Sample the Presto finale of the Piano Sonata in F major, K. 280, for an example of what you're getting into here.

César Cui, one of the group of five nationalist Russian composers of the second half of the 19th century known as The Five or The Mighty Handful, was the son of a French officer who had remained in Russia after the retreat of Napoleon in 1812. In common with other composers of his generation and background, he had a career apart from music, in his case as a professor at the Academy of Military Engineering, an expert in fortification. This did not prevent him from ambitious activity as a composer and an important career as a critic, often harsh and intolerant in his judgements. He is best known for his colourful short piano pieces.