Leo Ornstein - Piano Music - Hyperion: CDA67320 - CD or download

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Catalogue No: CDA67320
Label: Hyperion
Length: 77 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Ornstein: Suicide in an Airplane

Work length3:48

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Ornstein: À la Chinoise, Op. 39

Work length4:59

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Ornstein: Danse sauvage Op. 13 No. 2

Work length2:48

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Ornstein: Poems of 1917 Op. 41

Work length16:58

$10.00

$12.50

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. No man's land: Andante espressivo

Track length1:59

$1.00

$1.25

II. The sower of despair: Moderato

Track length2:38

$1.00

$1.25

III. The Orient in Flanders: Andantino, molto espressivo

Track length0:47

$1.00

$1.25

IV. The wrath of the despoiled: Sostenuto, molto appassionato

Track length1:30

$1.00

$1.25

V. Night brooding over the battlefield: Moderato e misterioso

Track length1:24

$1.00

$1.25

VI. A dirge of the trenches: Lento

Track length2:20

$1.00

$1.25

VII. Song behind the lines: Andante con moto e malinconioso

Track length1:10

$1.00

$1.25

VIII. The battle: Allegro e molto appassionato

Track length3:24

$1.00

$1.25

IX. Army at prayer: Allegro, ma non troppo

Track length0:53

$1.00

$1.25

X. Dance of the dead: Vivo, con fuoco

Track length0:53

$1.00

$1.25

Ornstein: Arabesques Op. 42

Work length10:20

$9.00

$11.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. The isle of Elephantine

Track length1:49

$1.00

$1.25

II. Primal echo

Track length1:40

$1.00

$1.25

III. Chant of Hindoo priests

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Shadowed waters

Track length0:40

$1.00

$1.25

V. A melancholy landscape

Track length1:21

$1.00

$1.25

VI. Pompeian fresco

Track length0:50

$1.00

$1.25

VII. Passion

Track length0:26

$1.00

$1.25

VIII. Les basoches

Track length0:34

$1.00

$1.25

IX. The wailing and raging wind

Track length1:29

$1.00

$1.25

Ornstein: Impressions de la Tamise Op. 13 No. 1

Work length8:02

$1.50

$1.85

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Ornstein: Piano Sonata No. 8

Work length30:10

$7.55

$9.35

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. Life's turmoil and a few bits of satire

Track length13:52

$2.05

$2.50

IIa. A trip to the attic – A tear or two for a childhood forever gone. The bugler

Track length0:48

$1.00

$1.25

IIb. A lament for a lost boy

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.25

IIc. A half-mutilated cradle – Berceuse

Track length2:25

$1.00

$1.25

IId. First carousel ride and sounds of a hurdy-gurdy

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.25

III. Disciplines and improvisations

Track length9:34

$1.50

$1.85

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When Leo Ornstein died in February 2002, the musical world lost a fascinating composer, quite possibly the oldest of all time (the year of his birth is uncertain, but he was probably 109 years old). Ornstein had an extraordinary life: he was a child-prodigy pianist in his native Russia, a refugee from anti-Semitism, an avant garde American composer and a virtuoso pianist of international renown in his early twenties. However, at the height of his fame he voluntarily turned his back on the limelight and took sanctuary in increasing obscurity, and having been almost entirely forgotten, he lived long enough to take satisfaction in the re-emergence of an interest in his musicof which this CD is early testimony. Ornstein's early piano works were unlike anything else in music. He employed the piano as a percussion instrument, pounding out savage rhythms and ferocious cluster-chords with a raw primal energy. He embraced atonality independently of Schoenberg and rhythmic primitivism unaware of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The titles of his piecesamong them Danse sauvage and Suicide in an Airplanereflected the extremist brutality of the music and rapidly gained him notoriety. By his early twenties he was one of the most highly reputed of contemporary composers. The music on this CD comes from each end of Ornstein's improbably long creative career. The shorter works were written at its outset, while the large-scale, kaleidoscopic Eighth Piano Sonata, his last composition, was finished in September 1990, when he was in his late nineties. The ever-inquisitive Marc-Andr Hamelin gives commanding performances of these supremely demanding works. The result is a stunning disc that reveals one of the twentieth century's most original and quirkily imaginative creative minds.

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Leo Ornstein - Piano Music

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