The early works of Josef Suk channel something of the same life-affirming Czech spirit also characteristic of Dvořák, his teacher and father-in-law. Pianist Jonathan Plowright makes a persuasive case for a composer whose music is at last emerging from the shadows. The four groups of pieces on this recording come from the first half of the 1890s and 1902. Along with his professional engagement with the violin, Suk was an accomplished pianist, and from an early stage wrote with idiomatic confidence for the instrument in a series of works that often require considerable virtuosity.