The debut album by David Potvin – a young, prize-winning pianist based in Montreal – reveals a strong affinity for this Canadian repertoire, in distinctive and highly accomplished performances.

The best known of the three composers is Jean Coulthard (1908-2000), the first from Canada’s West Coast to gain national recognition. A student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, Coulthard was also a pianist who knew and played preludes by Bach, Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninov. Her own 13 Preludes were composed between 1954 and 1986, and explore a range of lyrical and pensive moods in a tonally based style. Potvin masters each technical challenge while distilling the specific character of each prelude. I particularly enjoyed the wit and insouciance he finds in No 11, with its echoes of Debussy’s ‘Golliwogg’s Cakewalk’.

Growing Forgiveness (2022) by Cris Derksen draws upon her classical background and Indigenous ancestry. It begins with slow and steady arpeggiated chords, then accelerates into sharply rhythmical gestures. These yield in turn to a consolatory slow movement, before accelerated triplets usher in quicker music that gains dramatic and insistent rhythmic intensity. The piece ends with gentle and consoling afterthoughts.

The title of Murmuration by Keiko Devaux (b1982), scored for solo piano and tape, refers to a large flock of starlings. Avian evocations open the piece with high-pitched repeated notes and trills, which the electronic component embellishes and fortifies. Elaborate piano figurations simulate the movement of small birds soaring in large flocks.

After Murmuration, the disc concludes with a stark contrast: Potvin’s own recent piano transcription of a short orchestral piece by Coulthard, The Contented House (1974). Its meditative and reflective qualities are bathed in a tranquil F major.

Potvin also provides informative notes for his recording. No timings appear either in the booklet or on the CD cover. The recorded piano sound, captured at the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix in Quebec, is first-class.