Benjamin Godard was regarded as one of the most promising French composers of the second half of the nineteenth century but, as he stood firm against the ‘Wagner fever’ of his contemporaries, his music fell out of favour after his untimely death.

Most of his piano works are delightful character pieces or miniatures, but his two powerful piano sonatas make him one of the very few French composers to have experimented with this form.

The Belgian pianist Eliane Reyes gave her first concert at the age of five. When she was ten, she became a laureate of the Cziffra Competition at Senlis and played a Haydn concerto at the Tibor Varga Festival. She studied at the Brussels Conservatoire Royal, Berlin Hochschule des Künste, Salzburg Mozarteum and the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur and has gone on to an international concert career.

Her recordings have brought various awards and honours, including nominations in 2012 and 2015 in the solo category of the International Classical Music Awards and in 2013 in the contemporary music category for her recording of piano works by Nicolas Bacri [Naxos 8572530]. She is professor of piano at the Brussels Conservatoire Royal de Musique and a frequent member of international competition juries.