The Portuguese composer and pianist Óscar da Silva (1870–1958) was one of the major figures in Portuguese and Brazilian musical life in the first half of the twentieth century He left an extensive legacy of compositions for his instrument, cast in a soft and sultry Romanticism somewhere between Chopin and Rachmaninov. All four of the collections recorded here concentrate on delicacy of tone-colour, expressing a particularly Portuguese sense of human emotion, the untranslatable saudade.

Born in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, Luís Pipa studied in the Conservatoires of Braga and Porto and the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts of Vienna, later obtaining the degrees of Master of Music in Performance Studies and PhD in Performance from the Universities of Reading and Leeds in the United Kingdom. He is currently professor of piano and chamber music at the University of Minho, near Porto, and the president of the Portuguese branch of the European Piano Teachers’ Association.