The American composer Marc Blitzstein (1905–64) is best known for his left-leaning stage works; indeed, his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock achieved some notoriety in 1937 when the authorities shut it down. But Blitzstein was also a fine pianist and wrote for the instrument all through his career. This first album ever devoted entirely to his piano output offers a conspectus of 45 years of Blitzstein’s music, from lyrical juvenilia via spiky protest pieces and jazzy dance numbers to intimate ‘family’ pieces for close friends. The pianist is the Blitzstein expert Leonard Lehrman, whom Leonard Bernstein called ‘Blizstein’s dybbuk’, and who for decades has been one of the leading Blitzstein scholars.
