These studies were written for the 20-year-old pianist Tahu Matheson, the son of the conductor John Matheson, a friend and colleague of the composer. The work is a present-day development of the concert studies of Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin and Szymanowski. As well as demanding a transcendental technical command of the instrument, the studies call for an expressive an stylistic interpretation that give the impression of miniature tone-poems. The last four pieces in the set are based on traditional music from Hungary, Britain, France and Russia.
