The concept album WIND by German pianist Caroline Oltmanns delves into the many emotional facets of wind from breeze to storm.

Couperin’s Little Windmills and Janacek’s A Blown away Leaf set up the album with a gentle flow. In Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata and Mendelssohn’s Light and Airy the album picks up depth and momentum. Wilding’s The Black Wind came in the Morning depicts a dark and mischievous whirlwind, whilst the five Debussy preludes mark the gamut from utter stillness in his Sails to a gale in What the Westwind saw. Both final selections, Liszt’s Erlkönig and Orage tell stories of tempestuous storms, and the album closes with the gentle encore of bygone-times, Sinding’s Rustle of Spring.