Alexei Lubimov MESSE NOIRE

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)

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)