In recent years Danish composer Poul Ruders (b1949) has become one of the most eloquent mainstream avant­garde composers on the international new music scene‚ with a series of magnificent large­scale works under his belt‚ including Manhattan Abstraction‚ Gong‚ Symphony and Transformation‚ and his highly lauded recent opera‚ The Handmaid’s Tale. Yet his rise to prominence has come slowly‚ not with a single ‘breakthrough’ piece but through steady consolidation. Ruders’ music is stylistically conservative‚ eclectic but unfailingly expressive. It is this rhetorical directness along with a proven mastery of instrumental colour that above all seems to win so many friends for his music. Rolf Hind’s excellent survey of Ruders’ piano music focuses mainly on works written up to 1982‚ the year of Manhattan Abstraction. The coupling of his two substantial piano sonatas here is welcome‚ although one regrets the absence of the neo­Romantic 13 Postludes for solo piano from 1988‚ which are closer to Ruders’ present manner. The booklet text by Per Erland Rasmussen emphasises the stylistic contrasts between the pieces here‚ but my impression is rather of consistency and single­mindedness. Three Letters from the Unknown Soldier‚ written when the composer was only 18‚ may show superficial influences of the music of Penderecki but distinguishes itself through its precisely heard soundworld and through its oblique references to tonal areas. The big­boned Dante Sonata‚ composed only three years later‚ is an impressive achievement‚ too‚ but I can imagine that its intense dialogue with the Romantic piano tradition would have seemed more alien and more difficult to categorise in 1970 than it does now. Rolf Hind’s playing of these pieces is arresting‚ but I must confess I was not so sure about the faster movements of the Piano Sonata No 2‚ which are written using Ruders’ characteristic change­ringing procedures from the early 1980s and come across more muted in sound than the other works on this album. No doubts‚ though‚ about the huge finale‚ marked Monumentale e senza espressione‚ whose single­minded homophonic chords attain a towering climax. It is perhaps symptomatic of today’s perspective that it is the later piece‚ Star Prelude and Love Fugue‚ that creates the most winning first impression. The Love Fugue‚ marked ‘swinging’‚ makes light of its immense contrapuntal dexterity. The Star Prelude‚ at times reminiscent of études by Debussy and Ligeti‚ matches them for sheer beauty of piano sound.