PIANO DREAMS - Most Popular Melodies (The)

Classical Music

SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN SERGEI EDE

SCHUBERT: PIANO MUSIC FOR FOUR

When planning this record, I wonder what streak of perversity prompted Richard Stoltzman to include only one work originally designed for clarinet? That, of course, is the set of Fanta.sie stücke, Op. 73, launching the series of miniatures Schumann wrote for various instruments in early 1849, while relaxing after the Strain of larger undertakings like his opera, Genoveva, and incidental music for Byron's Manfred. The layout of the clarinet part tells us how clearly his imagination was fired by the instrument's tonal range, and it reveals Stoltzman at his most persuasive. I enormously enjoyed his fluid phrasing, his superfine dynamic nuances and, last but not least, the way he unifies the three pieces as a suite travelling in mood from nostalgia to the hope that springs eternal in the human breast. Nor is it possible to over-praise the intimate interweaving of clarinet and piano. Richard Goode is a partner in a thousand here—as indeed throughout the recital. Though the three Op. 94 Romances (also of 1849) were originally intended for oboe, Schumann himself sanctioned the clarinet or violin as possible alternatives. Perhaps it's because of the piano's essential contribution to the first and last pieces that they lose little of their character in the transfer—especially the last in Marchen style. All three are again most sensitively shaded by both artists even if in observing Schumann's fastish metronome marking For the cradle-song-like second, they sacrifice just a little of the requested lnnigkeit.

The recital is completed by the first two of the 19-year-old Schubert's three Sonatinas in transcriptions (with no transposition and only minimal adjustments elsewhere) by Stoltzman himself. Because of the often high-lying line in the clarinet's thinner upper register, these emerge just a little chillier than from the violin, with its vibrato to give a touch of extra vibrancy in song. The development section of the A minor Sonata's opening Allegro is perhaps the best example. In the D major Sonata's Andante the players very occasionally enrich the line with small embellishments of their own—as they also do at the fermata, before the last return of the leading theme, in the A minor Sonata's concluding Rondo. The overall impression is of hearing both these works as it were in translation. But the playing is again first rate in its suavity and tonal refinement no less than its spirit. The recording itself certainly could not be more clear and true.

-- J.O.C., Gramophone [9/1989]

This recording was formerly available as EMI-Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 47876.

"Right from the start you know that the Tokyo Quartet's will be a dramatic, fiery reading: there's that hair-raising initial attack, with subsequent loud/soft contrasts powerfully underlined. Each movement has its basic pulse, but within that pulse there's plenty of freedom. . . . [T]he trio of the Scherzo has a real lilt: a strong contrast with the biting, vigorous playing immediately before it. And I like the way they evoke the ghost of a dance in the variations—the spectral ballerina effect in Variation No. 1 is genuinely touching." -- Stephen Johnson, Gramophone

SCHUBERT: ARPEGGIONE SONATA, P

SCHUBERT: OCTET CLEVELAND OCT

SCHUBERT: WINTERREISE HAGEGAR

This recording was formerly available as EMI-Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 47878.

VOCAL SERIES - JUSSI BJ?RLING

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 15 -

This is a very sprightly Trout. The first movement, a true Allegro vivace, gives a joyful feeling of onward momentum, but poised and well in control so there's no sense of undue hurry. The lively yet easygoing style persists in the Scherzo and finale. The quintet's bright textures suit the clear, picturesque sounds of period instruments admirably: I especially enjoyed the light, seemingly effortless brilliance of the piano's upper register — the third variation in the fourth movement shows this off to perfection — and the way the characteristic 68 Gramophone February 1999 sonorities of the lower strings emerge so clearly. But there are some disappointments; Schubert's many pianissimos rarely sound soft or mysterious enough, and I felt often that the string phrasing should move further away from classical elegance towards romantic breadth. In the two slower movements particularly, the best modern instrumental versions, such as those led by Brendel and Curzon, achieve a more intense expression of Schubert's unique lyricism.

Bylsma plays the Arpeggione Sonata on a five-string violoncello piccolo. The result is wonderfully convincing; the light, reedy tone, often with minimal vibrato, is very appealing, and the high-register passages sound entirely natural and unforced. Immerseel's Viennese-action instrument, too, is especially evocative and sweet-toned here. The Notturno, however, despite some fine playing, slightly misfires, missing the mystery and excitement of La Gaia Scienza (also on period instruments), or the tranquillity and grandeur of Schiff, Shiokawa and Perenyi (their two-disc set of the piano trios also includes a warmly expressive account of the Arpeggione Sonata).

This well-recorded disc is certainly a recommendation for a period-instrument Trout, and as authentic-sounding an Arpeggione as one is likely to hear.

-- Gramophone [2/1999]

A busy itinerant flute virtuoso must needs resort to transcriptions of non-flute compositions to provide a sufficiently wide solo repertoire. Of the three Schubert works and arranged here by James Galway, only the Trockne Blumen Variations began life as a composition for flute and piano. The variations provide scope for both the flautist and pianist to excel and the result here is very fine. The Arpeggione Sonata has a realtively humdrum accompaniment, but the solo line transcribes beautifully for the flute. The two movements are coded as tracks 1 and 2, which throws out the numbering of the two following works, but this is not indicated on the leaflet. The famous Standchen too reveals Galway at his most musically expressive and will surely please the many fans of his television appearances. Sound quality is excellent, with the flute central but not too forward, and the piano firmly set off to the right.

-- Gramophone