Despite this work's Romantic subtitle, Arensky seems to have taken some inspiration from the Baroque harpsichord suites of Couperin; this is a series of mildly whimsical character pieces, each title given in French. Yet this could hardly be mistaken for Baroque music; the aesthetic is Arensky's own.

The first movement, "The Scholar," is a take-off on Baroque fugues. A loud, slow, heavy subject is banged out in the bass, and then presented canonically. A second, lighter and busier theme takes over, but soon the intimidating initial theme intertwines with it in a most "scholarly" style.

"The Coquette" is a delicate salon waltz swirling through several light episodes, some of them carefree and some pensive. This is a far less glittering, virtuosic waltz than the more famous corresponding movement in Arensky's first suite for two pianos.

"The Buffoon" ("Polichinelle" in the original) is a mercurial piece in which melody lines dance across dizzying accompaniments. It's a comic and very mildly grotesque scherzo in the tradition of Lyadov's Baba-Yaga.

"The Dreamer" ("Le Reveur") is a comparatively serious and unaffected slow movement, its emphasis on lyricism not precluding a passionate central climax, which quickly subsides into a Schumann-esque reverie. "The Dancer" is Spanish; the rhythm is a bolero, over which the melodic figurations grow increasingly complex and exhibitionistic, rather in the manner of Soler's Fandango.

© James Reel, Rovi