LEO ORNSTEIN (1893-2002): Piano Music, Vol. 1 - 4 Impromptus, s300A, Sonata No. 4, s360, In the Country, s63, Cossack Impressions, s55.

Description: If this series is long enough, we're going to have quite a bit of fascinating music to come. Not chronological, this first disc offers examples of the two Ornsteins: the avant-garde guy and his doppelganger who could write conservative, late Romantic suites of character pieces like the Cossack Impressions (c. 1914) and In the Country (1924). But at the same time, Ornstein could be the other one too: the fourth sonata (he never wrote down the first three) is from right between these latter two (c.1918) but it delivers oriental accents, dissonance and rhythmic bravura, sharing these with its almost exact contemporary, Griffes's sonata. The Impromptus were completed in 1976 but their origins go back to the 1950s and these offer a range of music from perfumed oriental melodies to machine-like toccatas to Ravelian impressionism. Quite a meal! Arsentiy Kharitonov (piano).