With his five piano concertos, sonatas and 24 preludes and fugues Rodion Shchedrin is one of the most prominent composers for piano of our time. A gifted pianist, he has given the first performances of most of his works himself. With the seven pieces in this Journal Shchedrin has created a cycle for piano reflecting his own life as a composer and pianist. These are remarkable confessions by the Russian musician who wrote his first major compositions as a twenty year-old student at the Moscow Conservatoire and who has been greatly involved in the international music scene in the post-soviet era. Using modern composition techniques the work combines traditional and modern forms in jottings that are like diary entries - a musical autobiography in miniature.