Ballades Nos.1- 3 6 Arabesques 5 Impressions Suite

The Suite dans le style ancien updates Baroque dance forms in spiffy Neo-Classical dress characterized by accessible tunes and tart harmonies that take root in Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Poulenc yet sound refreshingly original. Among the six 1930 Arabesques, a Mazurka in homage to Chopin begins with some deliberately "wrong note" melodic trickery, and eventually gives way to more than a few chords lifted (consciously or not) from the Gershwin songbook. The Fanfare's orchestrally evocative rumbles put both pianist and the instrument's bass register in peril, while the concluding Danza is a cross-rhythmic finger-twisting tour-de-force.