LEO ORNSTEIN (KREMENCHUK, POLTAVA,
RUSSIAN EMPIRE (NOW UKRAINE) DECEMBER 11, 1895 – GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN, UNITED
STATES FEBRUARY 24, 2002)
He was a
leading American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth
century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own
innovative and even shocking pieces made him a cause célèbre on both sides of
the Atlantic. Ornstein was the first important composer to make extensive use
of the tone cluster. As a pianist, he was considered a world-class talent. By
the mid-1920s, he had walked away from his fame and soon disappeared from
popular memory. Though he gave his last public concert before the age of forty,
he continued writing music for another half-century and beyond. Largely
forgotten for decades, he was rediscovered in the mid-1970s. Ornstein completed
his eighth and final piano sonata in September 1990 at the age of ninety-four,
making him the oldest published composer in history (a mark since passed by
Elliott Carter).
TRACKLIST
“Souvenirs
d’Italie”, Op. 39, No. 1 Barcarola (Venezia) (Leschetizky) Ampico 68883
Hungarian
Rhapsody No 13 (Liszt) Ampico 51607
Ballade No.
4, Op. 52, f (Chopin) Ampico 63153
Nocturne, Op.
15, No. 2, F# (Chopin) Ampico 5065
Liebestraum
No. 3 (Liszt) Ampico 50425
Waltz, Op.
64, No. 2, c# (Chopin) Ampico 5518
Melody in F
(Rubinstein) Ampico 50665
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