COPLAND • IVES • CARTER • BARBER • GRIFFES • SESSIONS : American Piano Sonatas (Peter Lawson) 2xCD (1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Pianist Peter Lawson cultivates a full and resonant sonority and wide dynamic range that suits the rugged registral valleys mapped by Carter and Copland in their respective sonatas. He lavishes similar care over the delicate harmonic twists throughout Griffes' Sonata and lovingly tends the spacious, transcendent lyricism Charles Ives spins when he's not bashing out good dissonances like a man. Listen, for instance, to Lawson's sustained calm and delicately placed "celesta" notes midway through Ives' Three Page Sonata, or to his twinkling dispatch of the Copland Sonata's zesty middle movement. Lawson sustains the slow movement of Roger Sessions' gnarly Second Sonata as eloquently as Robert Helps' more texturally differentiated live recording (CRI), and offers a cogent, somewhat reserved foil to Charles Rosen's more amply engineered and dramatically colored Elliott Carter Sonata (Bridge).  by Jed Distler
1.  Sonata for Piano in E flat minor, Op. 26 by Samuel Barber 
 Length: 19 Minutes 46 Secs. 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1949; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 

2.  Sonata for Piano "Three Page" by Charles Ives 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1905; USA 
Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 7 Minutes 16 Secs. 

3.  Sonata for Piano no 2 by Roger Sessions 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1946; USA 
 Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 15 Minutes 15 Secs. 

4.  Sonata for Piano no 1 by Charles Ives 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1901-1909; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 39 Minutes 18 Secs. 

5.  Sonata for Piano in G major by Aaron Copland 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1920-1921; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 23 Minutes 43 Secs. 

 6.  Sonata for Piano by Elliott Carter 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1945-1946; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1989 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK 
Length: 24 Minutes 11 Secs. 

 7.  Sonata for Piano by Charles T. Griffes 
Length: 17 Minutes 25 Secs. 
Performer:  Peter Lawson (Piano) 
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1917-1918; USA 
  Date of Recording: 1991 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio no 1, London, UK