Although perhaps best known as one of the most important contemporary German composers of opera, Giselher Klebe, a pupil of Boris Blacher, has also made a significant contribution to orchestral, vocal, choral, chamber music and instrumental repertoire. This second Marco Polo release of his piano music (Volume One is available on 8.223712) features the Poèma drammatico, written in 1999 as a homage to Verdi, a guiding influence on his music since 1950. The work includes quotations from Otello, Simone Boccanegra, Macbeth and Il trovatore, couched in Klebe’s own musical language. The remaining works were mainly written to mark various occasions in the lives of the dedicatees, while Meine Enkelkinder und ich (My Grandchildren and I) is a series of seven easy piano pieces written in answer to a request from Christian Köhn for music for beginners.