This is a fascinating release, filled with piano music that bears the stamp of Bartók’s engagement with Eastern European folk music. The most substantial work here is the Dance Suite, which was written for orchestra in 1925 to celebrate the unification of Buda and Pest into Hungary’s new capital. The Hungarian dances that underlie its movements are refracted through Bartók’s distinctive pungent harmonies and rhythmic games. In its transcription for piano the work sounds darker and less celebratory, and it presents significant technical challenges. Similar in character are the Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs. Here the folk-song melodies are merely the springboard for brief, fantasy-like pieces, many of which show the influence of Debussy on the young Bartók.

The other works on this CD are lighter and more accessible. The transcriptions of Romanian folk dances and Christmas carols — a direct result of Bartók’s field research into ethnic Hungarian music — are especially delightful. Jenö Jandó, Naxos’s "house pianist," performs everything with an emphasis on lucidity and a big, beautiful sound. His playing may lack the nervous tension other pianists bring to Bartók’s music, but the textural clarity he provides is ample compensation. Highly recommended.