AARON JAY KERNIS (b.1960): Before Sleep and Dreams, Superstar Etude #1, Air, Top 100 Greatest Dance Hits.

Description: Fans of Kernis' style of ingeniously incorporating frankly populist elements into a contemporary idiom will find this a satisfying collection. The easy-going piano pieces of Before Sleep depict childhood scenes in a vocabulary of updated impressionism with Romantic flourishes, while Superstar extends the idea of the virtuoso etude in the direction of rock and roll. Top 100 plays with popular dance forms in an eclectic stylistic collage which proves that serious contemporary music types can let their hair down and be all wild and crazy, yeah man. Meditatio is an elegy for John Lennon, a gently pulsating threnody based on the harmonic progressions of Lennon's 'Imagine' as though suspended in slow motion. All the works are resolutely tonal and instantly accessible. Andrew Russo (piano), Felix Fan (cello), David Tanenbaum (guitar), Kashii String Quartet.