Although little known to todays audiences, Leo Ornstein burst upon the international music scene in the early part of the twentieth century, and for a number of years was considered to be one of the foremost composers of the time. As a pianist his concerts often featured works that were little known in America at the time, including those by Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Franck, Bartók , Schoenberg and Stravinsky as well as some of his own radical compositions. This turned him into something of a cult figure. But in the mid 1920s at the height of a highly successful concert career, he suddenly ceased performing and never again played in public. A Morning in the Woods is a lyrical, thoroughly tonal, impressionistic piece which dates from 1971, when Ornstein was in his eighties. It is one of a large number of romantic works scattered throughout the composers improbably long compositional career.
