Sound Forms for Piano
Three important early pioneers of New Music make tremendous splashes on  this anthology of works for the piano. Pianist Robert Miller opens the  collection with three of Cowell's distinctive, swirling pieces, bowing the piano  strings with a fury for sonic expansion. Miller also engages Cowell's  unforgettable chord clusters, with their large, slamming intensity and rich  resonance. He also takes on several of Cage's early Sonatas and Preludes for  prepared piano and Nancarrow's influential, oddly virtuosicStudies for  Player Piano, examining alterations in both pianistic tone and execution.  Ben Johnston's lively, Cowell-inspired Sonata for Microtonal Piano rounds out  this comprehensive overview of avant-garde 20th-century piano music.--Andrew  Bartlett