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"...the point of this particular choice has more rationale than just the decided charm of the concerto. In 1984 thousands of Britishers were glued to their tellys for five weeks watching the BBC competition for Young Musician of the Year, and saw Miss Johnson win with this piece. "

Milt Jackson can play the vibraphone with such dexterity and speed that you are not aware that two simple hammers are the driving force of his sound.

Musicians of my acquaint­ance talked about Bartok, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg as though they were music's Holy Trinity. Today there are few musicians who deign to speak to me, but I somehow get the impression that, as an influence, Bartok has been re­moved from that lofty eminence.

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Seeing the title of this record, I was a bit taken aback. I didn't know what to expect. One of those horsehair­stuffed sonatas by MacDowell? Some of those ickey-poo salon pieces by Ethelbert Nevin? It was difficult to guess at anything much later. Who knows the piano works by Howard Hanson or Roger Sessions? The com­plete piano music by Leonard Berns­tein and Irving Babbitt occupies an LP apiece, and Copland's just two. For a moment I wondered if anyone still writes piano music.

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