Amy Beach: By the Still Waters

Amy Beach is historically important as the first prominent American woman composer. She also wrote music of some substance and charm. But like most of her contemporaries, she wrote mostly rather lightweight salon music for solo piano, and its interest has faded considerably. Of pianist Joanne Polk's two Beach CDs, this one is the more recommendable because it includes a substantial piece, the Variations on Balkan Themes, which shows what Beach could do when she set her mind to it. Some of the little pieces here are unbearably trivial. Polk plays very well, and benefits from excellent recorded sound. -- Leslie Gerber