CD of the Month: Bernstein Piano Works

Bernstein: Complete Solo Works for Piano

Bernstein:

Touches – Chorale, Eight Variations and Coda
Piano Sonata
Non troppo presto
Music for the Dance No. 2
Four Sabras
Bridal Suite

Copland:

El Salón México

Performed by Andrew Cooperstock (piano)

In celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centenary (1918-2018), this recording features the composer’s complete solo piano works, plus, as a special bonus, the witty and charming Bridal Suite for piano four-hands, heard here in its first complete recording.

In addition to the better known Sonata for the Piano, and Touches, Andrew Cooperstock has included Leonard Bernstein’s very first published work, the highly effective transcription of Aaron Copland’s orchestral tone poem El Salón México, together with the Four Sabras, Non troppo presto, and Music for the Dance, No. II.

This recording encompasses music from the composer’s teenage years through his last piano composition, Touches, and includes music Bernstein dedicated to friends and colleagues including Lukas Foss, Sergei Koussevitzky, William Schuman, William Kapell, and Stephen Sondheim. The distinguished pianist Andrew Cooperstock is Professor of Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Here is music from Bernstein’s Piano Sonata:

 

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