Perhaps no other composer was ever so consistently inconsistent throughout his life as the Russian-born Leo Ornstein, whose family emigrated to New York in 1907. While most composers can be seen to progress through stages, generally tending toward greater complexity and sophistication in their later works, his Muse led him constantly back and forth over the full range between dissonance and tonality. Although little known to contemporary audiences, Ornstein was considered to be one of the foremost composers in the early part of the twentieth century. The works on the present recording display the composer’s full breadth of style and harmonic complexity.