Lev Pouishnov: Fairy Tale No.2 in a minor

Lev Pouishnoff (1891 – 1959) was a Ukrainian-born pianist and composer, who made his home in the United Kingdom and whose career was largely in the West, from the 1920s onwards. He was especially associated with performances of the works of Frédéric Chopin, though he also played works by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. His was among the earliest recordings of Schubert’s Sonata in G major, D 894, made for English Columbia around 1928. Pouishnoff, born into an aristocratic Russian family in either Kyiv or Odessa, was drawn to the piano as a young child, and, having acquired some aptitude before the age of ten, gave two public concerts. His parents, not wishing him to be exploited, discouraged this, but after his father’s death (when Leff was 9), financial constraints led to his accepting concert engagements, and he rapidly gained a reputation. Special arrangements were made for his schooling, where he had a particular interest in chemistry. At the age of 14 he joined t