Fanny Mendelssohn: Sonata in G minor
Amy Beach: Ballade, Op. 6
Amy Beach: Four Sketches, Op. 15
- Phantoms
- Dreaming
Clara Schumann: Scherzo, Op. 14
Cecile Chaminade: Les Sylvains, Op. 60
Cecile Chaminade: Concert Etudes, Op. 35
- Automne
- Scherzo
Lili Boulanger: Prelude in D major
Chia-Yu Hsu: Rhapsody Toccata

If you were to do a blindfold test and listen to this recording without prior knowledge as to its content, you would instantly start assuming that you are listening to hitherto unheard or newly discovered works by Robert Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, Scriabin, Prokofiev, and even Nikolai Kapustin. I will leave it up to you to decide which ones apply to who. There is excellent piano music on this new Sorel Classics disc, a label whose mandate is "to create opportunities for women in composition, conducting, piano, voice and film scoring. Our mission is to keep musical excellence alive and to help expand the boundaries for women in music." And obviously these are piano pieces all composed by female composers, but personally I don't see the relevance of pointing that out. A doctor is a doctor and a composer is a composer without the need for gender awareness.

International award-winning pianist Anna Shelest who records exclusively on Sorel Classics, certainly exposes all of the finer details, expressive beauty and technical demands within each piece, and for example, brings out the exquisite charm within the music of Amy Beach or the fiery Chopinesque aspects of the Clara Schumann Scherzo. The jazzy elements within the Toccata by Chia-Yu Hsu are well fleshed out, as well as the harmonically adventurous progressions of Lili Boulanger.

Donna Voce is latin for "Grant us a voice". It needn't be because they are female composers but because they are good composers. There's no need to pull out the feminist card when the music speaks for itself. Most people condemn the fact that there are not many female composers or that they are not well represented. Women are more personable and socially outgoing and confident than men, which probably explains why there seems to be more women performing musicians and singers these days than there are men. Composing is a solitary, introverted activity better suited to the male persona, and therefore would not be an avenue of interest to most women. Let's be grateful that the few compositions we do have are as good as they are on this CD.