[Cover graphic]

Compact Disc CDA67320

£13.99

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 music - of 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 pieces - among them Danse sauvage and Suicide in an Airplane - reflected 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-André 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.

Recording Engineer
TONY FAULKNER
Recording Producer
ANDREW KEENER
Piano
STEINWAY & SONS
Front Design
TERRY SHANNON
Front Picture Research
RICHARD HOWARD
Booklet Editor
TIM PARRY
Executive Producers
SIMON PERRY
MICHAEL SPRING
© Hyperion Records Ltd, London, MMII

Duration: 77’30
DDD
Front painting (untitled, 2001) by Monika Giller-Lenz

Contents:

  1. Suicide in an Airplane [3'46]

  2. A la Chinoise Op 39 [4'59]

  3. Danse sauvage Op 13 No 2 [2'48]

    Poems of 1917 Op 41

  4. No 1: No Man’s Land – Andante espressivo [1'59]
  5. No 2: The Sower of Despair – Moderato [2'38]
  6. No 3: The Orient in Flanders – Andantino (molto espressivo) [0'47]
  7. No 4: The Wrath of the Despoiled – Sostenuto (molto appassionato) [1'30]
  8. No 5: Night Brooding over the Battlefield – Moderato e misterioso [1'24]
  9. No 6: A Dirge of the Trenches – Lento [2'20]
  10. No 7: Song behind the Lines – Andante con moto e malinconioso [1'10]
  11. No 8: The Battle – Allegro e molto appassionato [3'24]
  12. No 9: Army at Prayer – Allegro, ma non troppo [0'53]
  13. No 10: Dance of the Dead – Vivo (con fuoco) [0'51]

    Arabesques Op 42

  14. No 1: The Isle of Elephantine [1'49]
  15. No 2: Primal Echo [1'40]
  16. No 3: Chant of Hindoo Priests [1'31]
  17. No 4: Shadowed Waters [0'40]
  18. No 5: A Melancholy Landscape [1'21]
  19. No 6: Pompeian Fresco [0'50]
  20. No 7: Passion [0'26]
  21. No 8: Les Basoches [0'34]
  22. No 9: The Wailing and Raging Wind [1'29]

  23. Impressions de la Tamise Op 13 No 1 [7'57]

    Piano Sonata No 8

  24. I: Life’s Turmoil and a Few Bits of Satire [13'52]
    II: A Trip to the Attic – A Tear or Two for a Childhood Forever Gone
  25. The Bugler [0'48]
  26. A Lament for a Lost Boy [2'00]
  27. A Half-Mutilated Cradle – Berceuse [2'25]
  28. First Carousel Ride and Sources of a Hurdy-Gurdy [1'31]
  29. III: Disciplines and Improvisations [9'34]
Sleeve Notes

10 DE RÉPERTOIRE

'A tremendous tribute to a fascinating figure in 20th-century music' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Stimulating and frequently astonishing music, ultimately unlike anyone else's' (BBC Music Magazine)

'This is an essential release...realized with the dazzling virtuosity and preternatural clarity that we have come to expect from the enterprising Canadian … This exhausting, diverse, and technically astonishing recording is not one that I would gladly be without.' (Fanfare, USA)

'Marc-André Hamelin plays Ornstein’s music with commanding savoir-faire' (The Irish Times)

'Marc-André Hamelin plays magisterially, as ever. He clearly loves this music' (International Record Review)

'A provocative collection, brilliantly played and splendidly engineered' (International Piano)

'Marc-André Hamelin, aussi à l’aise dans les déferlements rythmiques que dans les moments suspendus du temps, nous offer là un disque superbe' (Répertoire, France)

'Marc-André Hamelin is spellbinding in his performance … This CD is an outstanding example of astonishing music' (Hi-Fi Plus)

'It almost goes without saying that Marc-André Hamelin plays the socks off this music, tackling the most knuckle-busting runs and cluster harmonies in Danse Sauvage and its fellow pieces with staggering virtuosity.' (ClassicsToday.com)

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