Music of Leo Ornstein

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1.
Three Moods: I. Anger 02:41
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2.
Three Moods: II. Grief 04:03
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3.
Three Moods: III. Joy 02:45
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4.
Quintette for Piano and Strings, Op. 92: I. Allegro barbaro 13:22
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5.
Quintette for Piano and Strings, Op. 92: II. Andante lamentoso 09:43
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6.
Quintette for Piano and Strings, Op. 92: III. Allegro agitato 13:39
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about

|| Burn-on-Demand CDs of this CRi reissue are available at our website: www.newworldrecords.org/products/music-of-leo-ornstein ||

The use of tone clusters, secundal harmonies, metrical irregularities and other unusual effects in the Three Moods was extraordinary at such an early time and from a man of Leo Ornstein's conventional background and education. Ornstein said in a recent interview: “I still wonder at the age of eighty what the dickens, suddenly, why should I have thought of that? Why that thing came into my head, I'll be blessed if I know! And as a matter of fact, I really doubted my sanity at first, because it was so completely removed from any experience I had with music.”

The Quintette, composed in 1927, is one of Ornstein's major works. It was sponsored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and is dedicated to her. The work shows Ornstein in a less abstract, more romantic style than he had displayed in his earlier, experimental pieces. It is charged with vitality, spontaneity, and passion while retaining not only an inner logic, but extraordinarily complicated harmonic and rhythmic structures. There are long, sweeping melodies, tunes reminiscent of Russian and Cossack songs, and driving rhythmic patterns. All of these are transformed throughout the three movements of the work. There is no key center, but the piece might be described as multi-tonal rather than atonal; the harmonic structure is complex and the textures are thick. There is a quality of integrity here, as there is in each of Ornstein's works, which derives from his determination to express his own life and feelings with utmost honesty.

credits

released January 1, 1975

Daniel Stepner, violin; Michael Strauss, violin; Peter John Sacco, viola; Thomas Mansbacher, cello; William Westney, piano

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Composers Recordings, Inc. Brooklyn, New York

CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.) was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore and Oliver Daniel. CRI was dedicated to the promotion of new music by American composers, releasing over 600 recordings on LP, cassette and CD over its 49 year history, New World Records assumed ownership of CRI in 2006, since which time its entire catalog has been digitized for streaming, download & CD-R purchase. ... more

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