Unlike the highly virtuoso Études d’exécution transcendante by Franz Liszt, these études by Wilhelm Killmayer are written ‘in a deliberately anti-virtuoso manner, without chroma, i.e. with seven tones and largely in two parts’. (Wilhelm Killmayer) Each of the twelve pieces focusses on a single compositional or technical aspect. Diatonic scales, parallel thirds and major chords are combined with some technically very tricky passages. Killmayer makes great demands on the pianist’s concentration, s...