PIANO MUSIC BY IVES, COPLAND, THOMSON, SMIT,...

PIANO MUSIC BY IVES, COPLAND, THOMSON, SMIT, MacDOWELL, BERNSTEIN, GERSHWIN, BARBER, SCHUMAN AND OTHER AMERICAN COMPOSERS. Leo Smit, piano. Musicmasters MMD 20105W. This is a fine platter of music served by a pianist who, though he is rarely thrilling, is both sensitive and sure. Smit allows the music to shine for itself. We may sample the savage power of the young Aaron Copland in “Embittered,” the tender stirrings of John Cage’s “Dream,” the sweet kisses and gossamer swoons of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “Ossian,” the penetrating chords of Edward MacDowell in “In Deep Woods,” and not least, the blues piece, “Zero Hour” of Pete Johnson, so alive with invention and so swelling with surprise--a piece in which Smit’s playing takes on particular vigor.