Quick March - A Little Song - A Little Fairy Tale - An Old Dance - A Little Joke - Scherzo - A Little Waltz - A Little Sad Tale - Having Fun - The Horseman - Dance on the Lawn - Etude - Sonatina - Scherzando

Many of us have played these gems as little kids - the Horseman, the Dance on the Lawn, the scary Russian fairy tales, the 21-second Etude, the Little Joke. There is genuine mastery in creating one-minute stories, scenes, songs and dances, playable by a child and dazzling to an adult. In this connection, Kabalevsky (London, 1988) quoted writer Maxim Gorki, who was asked "How should books for children be written?" to which he replied, "The same as for adults, only better!" (Cf. Sayaka Kanno, 2008). We met Kabalevsky when he visited New York in 1959 and found him to be a genial gentleman with a big smile who spoke to us in excellent English. In returning to this repertoire in mid-life, transitioning from piano to harpsichord, I definitely experienced a second childhood, finding fascinating new angles in these familiar pieces. The final piece (Scherzando) appears as No. 2 in Kabalevsky's 1943 collection of Preludes, Op. 38; it is a setting of a Russian folk-tune (Na Ivanushke chapan - Little Johnny's wearing a big coat). The harpsichord, decorated with a Native American design, was built by the physicist Robert Walker as a gift for his lovely wife, Dorothy.