Leonard Bernstein's works for the piano are mostly short, few in number, and intensely personal. The bulk of this disc is taken up by the 29 brief pieces he called 'Anniversaries' and gathered in four sets. Each of these is dedicated to a person who touched the composer's life in some way: Felicia Montealegre (both before and after they were married), Stephen Sondheim (lyricist for 'West Side Story'), Helen Coates (his first piano teacher and later his secretary), and so on. Alexander Frey captures these miniatures perfectly, whether they find the composer in a meditative mood or a jazzy one. The remaining two works--those perhaps more intended for concert use--come from opposite ends of Bernstein's career. The Sonata was written while he was at Harvard, and while it shows glimmers of his later style, it is very much a student work. 'Touches' was written to be the compulsory piece for the 1981 Van Cliburn competition and bears the dedication "To my first love, the keyboard." Frey gives excellent performances here and throughout, well in tune with the composer's love for his instrument.

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Leonard Bernstein's works for the piano are mostly short, few in number, and intensely personal. The bulk of this disc is taken up by the 29 brief pieces he called 'Anniversaries' and gathered in four sets. Each of these is dedicated to a person who touched the composer's life in some way: Felicia Montealegre (both before and after they were married), Stephen Sondheim (lyricist for 'West Side Story'), Helen Coates (his first piano teacher and later his secretary), and so on. Alexander Frey captures these miniatures perfectly, whether they find the composer in a meditative mood or a jazzy one. The remaining two works--those perhaps more intended for concert use--come from opposite ends of Bernstein's career. The Sonata was written while he was at Harvard, and while it shows glimmers of his later style, it is very much a student work. 'Touches' was written to be the compulsory piece for the 1981 Van Cliburn competition and bears the dedication "To my first love, the keyboard." Frey gives excellent performances here and throughout, well in tune with the composer's love for his instrument.