This album features a unique pairing of works from the Second Viennese School composers (Berg and Webern) with music by American composer Charles Ives.
Composition History
Alban Berg's Piano Sonata Op. 1 was his first significant completed work after beginning studies with Arnold Schoenberg in 1904, and was published at Berg's own expense in 1910.
Compositional Technique
Charles Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2, 'Concord, Mass., 1840-60', is known for its extensive use of musical quotations, allusions, and references, including themes from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, American hymns, and works by Bach and Wagner.
Composition History
Webern's Piano Variations, Op. 27, composed between 1935 and 1936, resonate with the death of his colleague Alban Berg in December 1935.
Performer Biography
Alexei Lubimov, the pianist on this album, is known for promoting new music, having founded the Alternativa festival in Moscow, and for his work with period instruments.
Compositional Technique
Webern's Piano Variations, Op. 27, represent a high point of his twelve-note (dodecaphonic) writing, focusing on the principle of variation not only motivically but also in rhythm, dynamics, and performance modes, leading to an individualization of each sound.
Compositional Technique
Berg's Piano Sonata Op. 1 combines traditional sonata form with a post-Romantic chromatic language, moving away from tonality and favoring semitone and fourth intervals, reflecting the 'emancipation of dissonance' of the Second Viennese School.
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Transformation
Khachaturian, A.I.: Piano Sonata / Bartok, B.: Piano Sonata / Piazzolla, A.: 3 Preludes
