Messe Noire

Alexei Lubimov's programme presents an appealing overview of Russian piano music covering the first half of the 20th century - namely Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiew and Scriabin. During his neoclassical phase, Stravinksky breathed new life and creativity into traditional ideas. Written in 1925, the Serenade in A major sees the composer in what could be described as wistful and romantic mode… The bleaker world of Shostakovich's Second Sonata is not a million miles removed from that of Stravinsky. Both men demonstrate clarity of thought and work out their ideas with an enviable economy of means. The Sonata is the very antithesis of its grand, classical predecessors. … Lubimov gives an exemplary reading. … Written around the same time as the Schostakovich, Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata in contrast abounds with energy and life. … The final work on this CD moves back in time. … Composed in 1913 when late Romanticism was giving way to a more freely explored tonal landscape, this one-movement sonata shows Scriabin moving fearlessly into a new age while retaining some of the richness of the past. …
There is an inspired symmetry to this programming. Alexei Lubimov is superb throughout. Thoroughly recommended.
Shirley Ratcliffe, International Piano

Alexei Lubimov certainly has a fine pianistic pedigree. Born in Moscow in 1944, he was one of the last students of Heinrich Neuhaus, whose previous pupils included both Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter. Unlike those greats, however, the core of Lubimov's repertory has always been the 20th century. … On this disc, the focus is Russian music from the first half of the 20th-century… Lubimov's relaxed, transparent performance of Shostakovich's Second Sonata and tightly coiled one of Prokofiev's Seventh are both hugely impressive, as is his surprisingly emollient account of Scriabin's "Black Mass" sonata.
Andrew Clements, The Guardian

The title refers to Scriabin's Ninth Piano Sonata, nicknamed The Black Mass, a single movement of darkly smouldering mysticism. It is the last in a compelling sequence of Russian piano works, the first being the least Russian-sounding, Stravinsky's Serenade in A. Lubimov perfectly catches the Apollonian detachment of its tactile neoclassicism. Both Shostakovich's Sonata No 2 and Prokofiev's No 7 were completed in 1942 and speak of dark times, though in different accents: the one laconic, the other expostulatory. Lubimov is subtly attentive to all these idioms.
Paul Driver, Sunday Times