Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Alexei Lubimov Supreme In Ives, Webern, Berg

...The main ingredient of this recital is the grand Charles Ives “Concord” Sonata, which has been well recorded in the last decade or so. This 40 to 55-minute masterpiece is brimming with Ivesian imagination and techniques, and it is one of the Ives compositions that works best on the ultimately limited format that is recorded music. (See also: Classical CD Of The Week: Charles Ives Down Under) Like most anything of Ives’, the sophistication is in the composition’s construction and its thousands of musical references (Beethoven, hymns, folk songs etc.), but the proof is in the listening. You could turn it into a “guess-the-quoted-composer” game, but I greatly prefer to listen to Ives with an element of benevolent naiveté. To me, it’s a quilt – which, incidentally, is a most American way of composing...

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Alexei Lubimov Supreme In Ives, Webern, Berg

Charles Ives, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Concord Sonata, Piano Sonata op.1, Piano Variations, Alexei Lubimov, Alpha Classics