L'ubomir Pipkov: Complete Piano Music, Volume Two

L'ubomir Pipkov: Complete Piano Music, Volume Two

TOCC 0744 (Toccata Classics, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (1 November 2024)

Playing time: 76'26"
Tracks: 40
Booklet pages: 20
℗ 2024 Toccata Classics
© 2024 Toccata Classics
Main country of recording: United Kingdom
Reviewer: Geoff Pearce
Review of L'ubomir Pipkov: Complete Piano Music, Volume Two published on 14 October 2024

Dobromir Tsenov, piano

L'ubomir Pipkov (1904-74):

1-6 Suite Bulgare, Op 2 (1928)

7 Pastorale, Op 24 (1944)

8 Dance (Momchil, Op 28, 1939-43, transcribed 1948)

9-20 Metro-Rhythmical Pictures and Studies, Op 69 (1969)

21-26 Metro-Rhythmical Pictures and Studies, Op 77 (1972)

27-40 Children's Joys, Op 82 (1973, unfinished) (first recording)

L'ubomir Pipkov (1904-74) is one of the leading members of the so-called 'second generation' of Bulgarian composers. On his Complete Piano Music, Volume Two, the fare is his Suite Bulgare, Op 2, Pastorale, Op 24, a dance transcribed from his opera Momchil, Op 28, two sets of Metro-rhythmical Pictures and Studies, Opp 69 and 77, and the (unfinished) suite Children's Joys, Op 82. The pianist, as in one Volume One, is Dobromir Tsenov, and here, too, he supplies the highly informative booklet text. In later life Pipkov became fascinated with the ancient heritage of Bulgarian folk-music, writing a series of what he called 'metro-rhythmical studies' - piano miniatures that combine melodic immediacy and rhythmic complexity, with a character that might be loosely characterised as sounding like 'Prokofiev meets Bartók in the Balkans'. Indeed, Pipkov saw in the irregular rhythms of Bulgarian folk-dance a parallel with the rhythmic experimentation of contemporary composers like Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky.

Recorded 20-23 May 2024 in Studio 1, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, UK.

 

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