Amazon.comRobert Starer, who was born in Vienna and raised in Palestine, now lives in upstate New York. He worked for a time as an accompanist, and he writes extremely well for the piano. I don't think Starer has the kind of musical imagination that creates great miniatures, so the little pieces, of which we have one set and part of another, don't show him at his best. But his larger works have real substance, and although they are thoroughly contemporary they are still quite listener-friendly. I particularly enjoyed the meditative Twilight Fantasies on this disc, but the other larger works are also engrossing. All are played well by a friend of the composer. --Leslie Gerber