BERNSTEIN: COMPLETE WORKS FOR SOLO PIANO; COPLAND...

BERNSTEIN: COMPLETE WORKS FOR SOLO PIANO; COPLAND BERNSTEIN: “EL SALON MEXICO.” James Tocco, piano (digital). Spanning four decades, Leonard Bernstein’s contributions to the keyboard literature break down into a series of engaging epigrams, four sets of !Anniversaries,” tributes to friends and relatives; a “Song Without Words” for his wife; the Melville-inspired “Moby Diptych” (1981), and most surprising, the 1980 “Touches,” a 1980 sequence of chorale (on a tune suspiciously similar to “Happy Birthday”), eight variations and coda, notable for their austere formality and dash of dissonance (this is the premier recording). The rousing Copland transcription substitutes keyboard fireworks for the composer’s Technicolor orchestration. Tocco makes everything sound eminently tasteful and appealing.