Amy Beach: By the Still Waters
Amy Beach is historically important as the first prominent American  woman composer. She also wrote music of some substance and charm. But like most  of her contemporaries, she wrote mostly rather lightweight salon music for solo  piano, and its interest has faded considerably. Of pianist Joanne Polk's two  Beach CDs, this one is the more recommendable because it includes a substantial  piece, theVariations on Balkan Themes, which shows what Beach could do  when she set her mind to it. Some of the little pieces here are unbearably  trivial. Polk plays very well, and benefits from excellent recorded sound.-- Leslie Gerber