This fourth instalment in the complete piano works of Louise Farrenc – one of the most respected pianists, composers and teachers of nineteenth-century Paris – focuses on her sets of theme-and-variations from the 1830s, including two world premiere recordings. Op. 12, Variations sur une galopade favorite, and Op. 16, Les Allemandes, appear here for the first time on disc, alongside Op. 14, Les Italiennes, a trio of brilliant variations on cavatinas by Bellini (from Norma and La straniera) and Carafa (Berenice), and Op. 15, based on a cavatina from Donizetti's Anna Bolena. These works reveal Farrenc's flair for transforming popular operatic melodies of her day into virtuosic and inventive keyboard showpieces. Pianist Maria Stratigou, recorded at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, brings idiomatic flair and technical assurance to this rewarding survey of Farrenc's variation sets.