Naxos 9.70252
 
Both Leonard Bernstein and Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun have used the piano for collections of shorter and/or occasional pieces, along with larger works that were written to exploit particular aspects of piano technique. Bernstein’s piano output is mainly comprised of characterful, subtle miniatures written, over four decades, as groups of ‘anniversaries’. Touches was composed as a test piece for the Sixth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Tan Dun’s piano music was composed at key junctures in his career and is both evocative and propulsive, Dew-Drop-Falls being one of his most intricate and ethereal sound pictures.