NAKED TANGO Released: December 2007, Label: Gega New, Catalog #327
…the infinite tango takes me towards everything…Jorge Luis Borges
In 1914 Erik Satie composed “Perpetual Tango” which was meant to be repeated eternally. Seventy years later John Cage wrote a piece with the same title, shape and structure as Satie’s tango. Separately and superimposed, these two works encircle this CD endlessly. The title, “Naked Tango” is borrowed from a stunning work (reproduced on the cover) by Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca. I was very fortunate to know Robert Helps during the last few years of his life and he remains a great inspiration for me as a person and as a musician. His music, which is the heart of this CD, along with timeless sounds from the distant past (Tisdall, Rameau) is woven into the perpetual rhythm of the tango as expressed by Nazareth, Stravinsky, Shchedrin and Barber. Svetozar Ivanov
Why it should have taken a Bulgarian-Floridian pianist to devise a really innovative tango-based program is something of a mystery (although Eastern Europe took to the tango as enthusiastically as did the rest of the world back in the day). Be that as it may, this disc by Svetozar Ivanov, a professor at the University of South Florida, is personal, musically absorbing, and suggestive of new ways of programming the tangos of Piazzolla. He does not appear on the disc, although his Brazilian counterpart Ernesto Nazareth is represented. Ivanov pulls off the difficult trick of assembling a program with a dual focus -- the "naked tango" (or, as the beautiful Borges quote in the booklet has it, the "infinite tango", also suggested by the related Satie and Cage works that frame the program) serves as a foil for a memorial to the late Florida-based composer Robert Helps. His works are not tangos, but they are visionary, somewhat Ivesian pieces that strive to evoke the infinite. Ivanov adds another counterweight -- works from earlier in the European tradition, by Rameau and British Renaissance composer William Tisdall, that were based on popular dance rhythms. The overall result is genuinely life-affirming, placing a memorial (and a memorial within a memorial, for one of Helps' own works, "Recollections," itself has a movement entitled "In Memoriam") within a continuum of dance rhythms communicating an infinite but secular life force greater than any individual life. Superbly original and quite moving, this disc is deserving of wider exposure than it may gain from its release on Bulgaria's Gega label.
James Manheim,All Music Guide, January 2008
VERS LA FLAMME Released: June 2007, Label: Gega New, Catalog #322
notes from the CD booklet:
I have always been fascinated by the artistic spirit of early 20th century Europe. Time of changes, time of experiments – the beginning of modern times! In the next few pages I have included a painting and a poem to accompany each of the compositions on this CD. My intention is not to complement or represent the music through these works; rather my hope is that they help portray the artistic climate of the time and place in which the composers wrote these pieces. Debussy’s impressionistic “Images II” was composed in 1907 – same year as Monet’s “Water-Lilies, Nymphéas” and at a time when the young Apollinaire was becoming one of the most popular members of the artistic community of Paris. Klimt and Altenberg were part of Vienna's cultural elite and were especially influential on young Berg at the time he wrote his sonata op.1 – 1908. The expressionism of Schoenberg’s op.11 from 1909 corresponds to the emotional intensity of two other Vienna artists from that time - Schiele and George (one of Schoenberg’s favorite poets). And finally, Ciurlionis’ idea about synthesis of music and color reminds us of Scriabin’s grandiose, but unfinished project for synthesis of all arts – Mysterium. Included here is the first verse of Scriabin’s text to the Prefatory Action which was intended as the prelude to the Mysterium.
Svetozar Ivanov
The idea behind this disc entitled "Vers la flamme" is to join together piano works by four fin de siècle composers: Debussy's Images II from 1907, Berg's Piano Sonata from 1908, Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstücke from 1909, and Scriabin's Five Préludes Opus 74 and, giving the disc its title, his Vers la flamme, all from 1914. Pianist Svetozar Ivanov clearly has the virtuoso technique to handle every problem posed by this excruciatingly difficult repertoire. Even the nearly impossible final movement of Schoenberg's Klavierstücke is played with aplomb, panache and complete conviction. And, equally clearly, Ivanov has a sure feel for all four composers. His Debussy is filled with sensual longing, his Berg with anguished yearning, his Schoenberg with anxious dread and his Scriabin with provocative energy. Indeed, if this recording has a flaw, it's that Ivanov does not characterize each composer fully enough: for some listeners, his Debussy may sound too provocative, Berg too anxious, his Schoenberg too sensual and his Scriabin too dreadful. But others could argue that these are valid interpretative points of view and that Ivanov's approach does link these four composers tightly together. Recorded in the First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg Florida with Ivanov himself as the producer, the sound here is close, warm and full.
James Leonard,All Music Guide, March 2008
NIKOLAI ROSLAVETS Short Works for Violin and Piano Released: March 2009, Label: Gega New, Catalog #340 Stuart-Ivanov Duo (Carolyn Stuart – violin, Svetozar Ivanov – piano)
This collection seeks to offer a portrait of this composer who was almost erased from Russian musical history, as seen through a chronological offering of some of his distinctive short pieces for violin and piano. Alongside some of Roslavets’s signature published works, thid disc includes several unpublished miniatures, presented here in their world premiere recordings.
"In every regard a showcase for Stuart's and Ivanov's musical and stylistic mastery." Robert Maxham, Fanfare Magazine
"Carolyn Stuart and Svetozar Ivanov provide all of the expertise one can ask for in their performances of these works." Steven E. Ritter, Fanfare Magazine
