John Cage: As It Is Alexei Lubimov & Natalia Pschenitschnikova

• 1 Dream 08:28
• 2 The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs 03:02
• 3 The Unavailable Memory Of 03:29
• 4 A Flower 03:31
• 5 Music for Marcel Duchamp 06:20
• 6 Experiences No. 2 03:33
• 7 A Room 02:11
• Three Songs
• 8 Three Songs: I. Twenty Years After 00:30
• 9 Three Songs: II. Is It As It Was 00:56
• 10 Three Songs: III. At East and Ingredients 01:23
• Two Pieces For Piano
• 11 Two Pieces for Piano: I 05:03
• 12 Two Pieces for Piano: II 05:19
• Five Songs
• 13 Five Songs: 1. Little Four Paws 01:42
• 14 Five Songs: 2. Little Christmas Tree 03:37
• 15 Five Songs: 3. in Just 01:11
• 16 Five Songs: 4. Hist Whist 00:59
• 17 Five Songs: 5. Tumbling Hair 01:06
• 18 Prelude for Meditation 01:26
• 19 She Is Asleep 07:49
• 20 Nowth Upon Nacht 01:22
• 21 Dream, Var. 08:25
• Total Runtime 01:11:22

Info for John Cage: As It Is

A fresh approach to one of contemporary composition’s most iconoclastic and inventive figures, issued on the occasion of John Cage’s 100th birthday. Early Cage is the subject here, strikingly original songs and piano pieces from the 1930s and 1940s. Songs in which Cage set words by writers whose vision was as independent as his own – James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings. Piano pieces which evoke other worlds, and dreams. As Paul Griffiths writes, “The music exists in singing that has a raw, living edge, and it exists in piano tone that can be utterly simple and utterly remarkable. There is also a third presence, that of the producer, bringing forward the extraordinary resonances that come from Lubimov’s piano, with preparation or without.” Recorded December 2011 in Zürich.

In time for the John Cage centenary here is a wonderful and fresh account of the great iconoclast’s music that conveys the playfulness, the serenity and the sense of freedom that animated it from the outset. This is, mostly, early Cage. Music from the 1940s primarily but also settings of poems by Gertrude Stein and E. E. Cummingss from the 1930s as well as ”Nowth upon nacht” a late entry from 1984, a composition in memory of Cathy Berberian for which Cage returned to the same page of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” which had inspired his “Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs” in 1942.

Our interpreters here: Alexei Lubimov, pianist, and Natalia Pschenitschnikova, singer. As Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes “the music exists between them and the composer. It exists in singing that has a raw living edge and it exists in piano tone that can be utterly simple and utterly remarkable.”

Several of the pieces featured prepared piano, Cage’s particular innovation, effectively transforming the grand piano into makeshift Gamelan orchestra, conjuring gonglike sonorities from its harp of strings by the simple expedient of adding nuts, bolts, screws and pieces of wood and rubber weatherstripping. “There is also a third presence”, Griffiths notes, “that of the producer [Manfred Eicher] bringing forward the extraordinary resonances that come from Lubimov’s piano, with preparation or without.”

Lubimov was one of the artists who consistently championed Cage’s work in Russia from the 1960s onwards. He gave the first monographic concert of his music at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1976, “to the fury of the academic professors” as the pianist recalls in an performer’s note here.

Alexei Lobimov, piano & prepared piano Natalia Pschenitschnikova, voice

“As It Is” was recorded at the DRS Radio Studio Zürich in December 2011.

Alexei Lubimov
Born in Moscow, pianist Alexei Lubimov is one of the most strikingly original musicians performing today. His large repertoire combined with his dedication to principle and musical morals make him a notable exception in today’s music scene. Following studies with Heinrich Neuhaus Alexei Lubimov established an early dual passion for baroque music performed on traditional instruments and also 20th century composers such as Schönberg, Webern, Stockhausen, Boulez, Ives, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Silvestrov and Pärt. He has premiered many contemporary pieces in Russia and founded a music festival there: “Alternativa”. He formed a quartet dedicated to baroque music during the 1970s when international travel became impossible. Performing old and new music well, however, did not stop Alexei Lubimov from being an outstanding performer of classical and romantic repertoire as his many recordings show.

As political restrictions were lifted in Russia during the 1980s, Alexei Lubimov soon emerged among the first rank of international pianists giving concerts in Europe, North America and Japan. He has appeared with such orchestras such as the Helsinki-, Israel-, Los Angeles-, Munich- and St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic in London, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Phil. de Radio France, Toronto Symphony and Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin under the most important international conductors: Ashkenazy, Järvi, Kondrashin, Hogwood, Mackerras, Nagano, Norrington, Pletnev, Saraste, Salonen, Janovski or Tortelier. He has given historic performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Wiener Akademie and the Collegium Vocale Gent.


In the world of chamber music, he performs regularly with famous soloists and ensembles at festivals throughout the world.

In recent seasons he has given concerts with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Russian Natioanl Orchestra in Moscow and the Tonkünstlerorchester (2 concerts in the Great Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein) as well as innumerable solo recitals. He toured with Haydn Sinfonietta playing Mozart concertos and played Mozart with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana under Robert King, Haydn with the Camerata Salzburg under Sir Roger Norrington in New York, Pärt’s Lamentate with RSO Vienna under Andrey Boreyko at the Musikverein and with the Tampere Philharmonic under John Storgards. Other highlights include performances of Prometeus by Scriabin at the Salzburg Festival and in Copenhagen and performances with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment (Beethoven), Munich Philharmonic (Silvestrov), SWR Stuttgart (Pärt), DSO Berlin (Pärt), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Pärt), Anima Eterna Brugge and Russian National Orchestra. In 2010 he has performed solo and with orchestra in Brussels, Utrecht, Budapest, Lille, London and New York, to name only a few examples. The repertoire ranged from baroque to living composers.

His recordings have been issued on various labels including Melodia, Erato, BIS or Sony featuring the complete Mozart sonatas, Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms as well as music of the 20th century. Since 2003 he has recorded regularly for ECM producing some unusual CDs of particular note: “Der Bote,” with music of Liszt, Glinka and CPE Bach alongside John Cage and Tigran Mansurian; Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony, “Messe Noir” with music of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Scriabin; and “Misteriosos” with music of Silvestrov, Pärt and Ustvolskaya. His recording of Schubert’s Impromptus Op. 90 and Op.142 was released in 2009 by Harmonia Mundi.

Booklet for John Cage: As It Is