The new studio album from Arcadi Volodos captures the master pianist’s finely honed interpretation of Schubert’s late Piano Sonata in A major D 959, as well as three of his very rarely recorded minuets: D 334, D 335 und D 600. After spending years performing and refining his interpretation of Schubert’s penultimate piano sonata, Volodos has now committed the work to “tape” for posterity.

For him, a recording is a personal testament to a creative period’s culmination – this explains the relative rarity of a new Volodos recordings. Volodos personally selected the three rare minuets to accompany the piano sonata, additionally choosing to pair the D 600 Minuet with the D 610 Trio. Volodos brings these extremely rarely recorded works to life with his unmistakable tonal brilliance and stylistic elegance. Released 17 years ago, Volodos’s first – and, until now, only – recording of Schubert’s works, coupling the Sonatas in E major D 157 and G major D 894, garnered much praise. “Here is irrefutable proof of Arcadi Volodos’s genius and versatility,” wrote Gramophone magazine at the time. The German specialist magazine Fono Forum observed that “Volodos makes the piano sing like few other pianists today”.

In the intervening years, Volodos’s relationship to the works of Schubert has only deepened. Reviewing his performance at this year’s Salzburg Festival, Der Standard wrote, “When Arcadi Volodos plays Schubert, time stands still.” So, too, this recording offers a snapshot of a master pianist at the height of his interpretative powers.

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REVIEWS:

Every phrase is so exquisitely turned, so perfectly graded in its nuances, so ideally blended – harmonically, melodically and in relation to what comes before and after – that it could be placed on exhibit for all to wonder at. Like all the great virtuosos, he knows how to bring spaciousness to the most technically demanding passages and inner life to the simplest.

– Gramophone

When you witness the palpable stillness Volodos conjures from the opening of the Andante, and when you hear his chiaroscuro, a light and shade beyond the reach of virtually any other pianist, you feel above all compelled to marvel at Schubert’s genius.

– International Piano

Classical Music

Schubert, F.: Schöne Müllerin (Die)

Wilhelm Furtwängler & The RAI Orchestra (Live)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 / Schubert: Symphony No. 8

"• Exclusive to Naxos! • All titles never before available in the U.S.! • Incredible value; budget prices! • German pressings of the immense Sony Classical Masters Catalog in smart, desirable and collectible multi-disc editions • The Sony catalog is replete with legendary artists and many of the greatest recordings of the classical repertoire • Box fronts feature large, prominently displayed photo of the featured artist • Slender, shelf-friendly boxes; CD's housed in space-saving slipsleeves"

Schubert, F.: Choral Music

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

...two artists to be reckoned with: Sonia Wieder Atherton and Imogen Cooper... For the first time, we can rightfully speak of "the cello's diction"... The slow movement draws tears from our eyes as if the cello has imposed its own words to the music... Schubert has been resuscitated!

-- Crescendo [4/1999]

The main question here is how BMG's new 20-bit remasterings compare to those in their 1990 Toscanini Complete Edition. Both ends of the dynamic spectrum are considerbly opened up, which intensify the Maestro's stinging accents and point up the carefully sculpted cantabile phrasings to an unprecedented degree. I also detect smidgens of artificial reverberation: tastefully applied, but frankly superfluous. The Schubert symphonies boast relentless forward momentum, which pushes the NBC Orchestra to the edge of its collective virtuosity. I prefer Toscanini's weightier 1940 Schubert "Great", featuring the more tonally alluring Philadelphia Orchestra. By contrast, the Mendelssohn works benefit from Toscanini's slightly looser-limbed expansiveness in the slow movements, and the solo work is more relaxed. The performances, incidentally, date from between Toscanini's 83rd and 87th years, and reveal the Maestro's unflagging energy and fervent committment in each and every bar.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Idil Biret' new Liszt album prompts a reappraisal of her extraordinary talent... in her Liszt Sonata... you will hear playing of a formidable power and assurance... There is no mistaking her lightning reflexes in the second of the Paganini Etudes and her vi. 747313128778 IBRA8571287.2 16136342 .00 14.99 .19 IDIL BIRET ARCHIVE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/4/2/8/1908240.jpg 28 1 N MARTIN,CLAIRE / WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOW WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOW 691062039222 LINN392.2 16136441 .00 20.99 .20 LINN RECORDS COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/5/2/8/1908257.jpg 23 1 N MATTHEWS / VANDEWALLE PRELUDES & BAGATELLES 670541841228 RAVL7819.2 16183216 .00 13.99 .14 RAVELLO COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/5/2/8/1908258.jpg 11 1 N SOLLSCHER,GORAN GORAN SOLLSCHER 7391782215144 CRE21514.2 01991246 .00 20.99 .23 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/19/1996 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/5/0/5/1465050.jpg 2 1 N ELLINGTON,DUKE / BABS,ALICE IN SWEDEN 1973 7391782215991 CRE21599.2 06473136 .00 20.99 .24 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 08/24/1999 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/5/0/5/1465054.jpg 2 1 N MITCHELL,RED HOME SUITE 7391782213133 CRE21313.2 01990065 .00 20.99 .25 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 09/27/1994 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/8/0/5/1465085.jpg 0 1 N RIEDEL,GEORG / ALFREDSON,HANS / DAHLGREN,EVA NU SJUNGER NAKTERGALEN 7391782213560 CRE21356.2 01990232 .00 20.99 .21 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP INT'L & WORLD MUSIC CHILDRENS 01/24/1995 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/8/0/5/1465086.jpg 7 1 N RIEDEL,GEORG / JANSON,CLAES / WILLEMARK,LENA LILLA UNGEN MIN 7391782214109 CRE21410.2 01990577 .00 20.99 .21 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP INT'L & WORLD MUSIC CHILDRENS 01/24/1995 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/8/0/5/1465088.jpg 15 1 N BRUMEL / HUELGAS ENSEMBLE / VAN NEVEL MISSA ET ECCE TERRAE MOTUS / SEQUENTIA 8718247710928 NWTC8802092.2 16182745 .00 12.99 .22 NEWTON CLASSICS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/8/1/8/1908184.jpg 0 1 N BEETHOVEN / NEW ZEALAND PIANO QUARTET PIANO QUARTETS From the pen of the fifteen-year-old Beethoven, these three piano quartets are among the earliest examples of a chamber music genre that would not reach full maturity until the time of Brahms. 747313099870 NXS8570998.2 14433184 .00 19.99 .23 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 05/26/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/9/9/2/1512991.jpg 3 1 N ADAM / COJOCARU / KOBBORG / NUNEZ / PETIPA GISELLE Alina Cojocatu, Johan Kobborg, Marianela Nunez, and Martin Harvey perform in this Royal Ballet production of the Adam ballet conducted by Boris Gruzin. 809478070306 BOPU7030BR 14471902 .00 39.99 .25 BBC / OPUS ARTE BLU-RAY CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 05/26/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/7/0/3/1513071.jpg 0 1 N VIVALDI / DEUTER / HARMONIE UNIVERSELLE VIOLIN CONCERTOS 3760107400154 ELOQ815.2 13784300 .00 29.99 .20 ELOQUENTIA FRANCE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 08/12/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/4/2/1/1381245.jpg 3 2 N FREITAS / RTE NAT'L SO / CASSUTO SYMPHONY NO. 1 / SUITE ALENTEJANA Luis de Freitas Branco was a pre-eminent figure in Portuguese music of the first half of the twentieth century. This first disc of a four volume series of Freitas Branco' orchestral works features the First Symphony in which the influence of Cesar Franc. 747313076574 NXS8570765.2 13802110 .00 19.99 .22 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 07/29/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/1/2/9/1379214.jpg 17 1 N HAYDN / BABANOV / SCHUSTER / DASKALAKIS TRUMPET CONCERTO / HORN CONCERTO NO. 1 Haydn' popular Trumpet Concerto is best known for it's thrilling first movement cadenza and brilliant and inventive Rondo finale. 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WAGNER / RYAN / ORQ COMUNITAT VALENCIANA / MEHTA GOTTERDAMMERUNG Lance Ryan, Raff Lukas, Matti Salminen, Franz-Josef Kapellmann, Jennifer Wilson, and Elisabete Matos star in this production of the Wagner opera with Zubin Mehta conducting the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana. 814337010126 CMAJ701204BR 14901416 .00 45.99 .25 C MAJOR BLU-RAY CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 02/23/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/2/4/2/1612424.jpg 4 1 N FREUND / KERNIS / ROUSE / SATTERWHITE / SPECK CELLO VISION 044747298924 CAV2989.2 14908873 .00 18.99 .27 CENTAUR COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/23/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/8/6/6/1616685.jpg 4 1 N HAYDN / ROSEL / OLBERTZ / WERNER / SCHREIER HIGHLIGHTS 782124494926 BLN149492.2 14815393 .00 18.99 .31 BERLIN CLASSICS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 01/12/2010 03/03/2021 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/1/5/8/1588517.jpg 5 3 N BRUCKNER / HALLE ORCHESTRA / MANDEAL SYMPHONY NO 9 5065001341212 HLLE7524.2 14863998 .00 20.99 .21 HALLE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/2/2/5/1605224.jpg 5 1 N ROSSINI / MACCARONI / IANNELLA ORGAN SYMPHONIES FOR FOUR HANDS 8007194104639 TCS791805.2 14864599 .00 18.99 .23 TACTUS RECORDS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/2/2/5/1605229.jpg 4 1 N TALLIS / ENS EUROPEEN WILLIAM BYRD / O'REILLY THOMAS TALLIS'S SECRET GARDEN 5425004849632 PASS963.2 14864322 .00 21.99 .19 PASSACAILLE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/4/2/5/1605249.jpg 3 1 N PREGARDIEN,CHRISTOPH BETWEEN LIFE & DEATH 608917232424 CHLL72324SACD 14863691 .00 26.99 .40 CHALLENGE SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/8/2/5/1605283.jpg 6 2 N OELZE,CHRISTIANE SONGS & ARIAS 782124847524 BLN184752.2 14863509 .00 18.99 .22 BERLIN CLASSICS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CLASSICAL VOCALS 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/9/2/5/1605297.jpg 11 1 N FRESCOBALDI / LESTER HARPSICHORD MUSIC 1 710357585029 NIM5850.2 14863974 .00 20.99 .22 NIMBUS RECORDS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/09/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/1/3/5/1605310.jpg 5 1 N GADE / BORUP / CONNER VIOLIN SONATAS Mendelssohn' successor as the music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and a close friend of Joachim and the Schumann's, the Danish conductor and composer Niels Wilhelm Gade melded Nordic spirit. 747313052479 NXS8570524.2 14810541 .00 19.99 .22 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 12/15/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/7/4/4/1584473.jpg 4 1 N MESSIAEN / BRUUN / HYLDIG 3 MELODIES HARAWI Messiaen' song cycles Trois Melodies and Harawi were both inspired by the loss of a loved one: The Melodies are a memorial to his mother who had died three years previously and Harawi was written shortly after his wife Claire Delbos had begun to suffer. 747313218974 NXS8572189.2 14810695 .00 19.99 .21 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 12/15/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/8/4/4/1584483.jpg 12 1 N MUSICAL JOURNEY: ROME / VARIOUS MUSICAL JOURNEY: ROME / VARIOUS This travelogue starts at the Pantheon and the Colosseum and moves to the Forum of Augustus and Forum of Trajan, the Arch of Constantine and the Capitol, as well as the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain. 747313523955 NXS2110239DVD 14810404 .00 13.99 .22 NAXOS DIGITAL VIDEO DISC CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC V/A COMPILATIONS 12/15/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/9/4/4/1584493.jpg 1 1 N MUSICAL JOURNEY: NORTHERN ITALY & SICILY / VARIOUS MUSICAL JOURNEY: NORTHERN ITALY & SICILY / VARIOUS The tour starts in northern Italy in Mantua and moves to Cremona and Milan, as well as Sicily. Included is music by Mozart. 747313525157 NXS2110251DVD 14810435 .00 13.99 .20 NAXOS DIGITAL VIDEO DISC CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 12/15/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/9/4/4/1584495.jpg 16 1 N STRAUSS,J.II / CORO NOTTURNO / EICHENHOLZ NIGHT IN VENICE When the lady-killer Duke of Urbino decides to seduce Barbara, the most beautiful woman in town, at a masked ball, the scene is set for an unforgettable night. 730099026871 NXS8660268-69.2 14810978 .00 29.99 .25 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 12/15/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/9/4/4/1584497.jpg 14 2 N BELLINI / CORELLI / NERI / CALLAS / SANTINI NORMA: ACT 1 8014399501514 MYT151.2 13699697 .00 10.99 .21 MYTO RECORDS ITALY COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 06/24/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/3/4/9/1379439.jpg 5 1 N SCHUBERT / BEREZOVSKY / NEW YORK PHIL / MASUR SYM NOS 3 & 8 WANDERER FANTASY Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 Unfinished"; Schubert/Liszt Wanderer - Fantasie / Boris Berezovsky / Kurt Mazur / The Berezovsky performance with Masur of the Liszt arrangement is handled with such an elegant touch, and never pulls back from the extra sentimentality that Liszt injected. It actually gave more insight into the work. It is pure Liszt, especially the Liszt of the First Piano Concerto. Berezovsky plays with that recognition, and that is why it works.

This is the kind of release that is fully worthy of a major label like RCA: two of today's top artists working at peak form, delivering the goods in a serious program of worthy repertoire. Schubert is one of the few composers whose range is wide enough to allow the creation of a rewarding evening devoted just to him, and his piano duos (here played on two pianos rather than by two pianists at one keyboard) live in a world all their own. Evgeny Kissin has done some of his best work in Schubert (the "Wanderer" Fantasy, for example), and James Levine, no slouch as a pianist himself, clearly loves this music as much as anyone. The program includes three of Schubert's very greatest works in the medium, all of them dating from the end of his brief life.


The earliest is the Grand Duo, really a symphony that Schubert never got around to scoring (the most famous orchestral arrangement is Joachim's, and it deserves to be a repertory piece). Much of the writing is extremely orchestral in conception, which means unpianistic, and the trick here lies not so much in making the piece sound like piano music (who cares, really?), but simply in focusing the listener's attention on the ongoing symphonic musical process. Key to this is timing, and here Kissin and Levine don't set a foot wrong. The first movement perfectly balances "allegro" with "moderato" in an unbroken arc of sustained tension, perhaps inspired by the presence of the very well-behaved Carnegie Hall audience. A beautifully shaped andante leads to a boisterous scherzo, its interesting harmonic underpinning unobtrusively highlighted where necessary (using two pianos probably helps here). You only need listen to the closing bars of the finale, music that often sounds too thin on the keyboard, to understand just how perfectly timed this performance is.


The Grand Duo occupies the second half of this concert. The program begins with a subtle, fluid account of the haunting Fantasie in F minor. It's interesting how performers who can seem affected when playing solo (as Kissin sometimes does) behave themselves when working in an ensemble situation. Here, the lovely opening theme has the right elegiac simplicity, the final fugue great clarity and rhythmic point. I'm not giving up such favorites as Perahia/Lupu in this music, but Kissin/Levine offer an interpretation that's really very affecting. And their ferocious take on the "Lebensstürme" Allegro D. 947 is just plain thrilling--a turbulent, clenched fist of a performance that brings the first half of the program to a grandly passionate conclusion. Indeed, taken as a whole, the first part minor/second part major cast of the whole evening works extremely well as an emotional sequence for continuous listening.


The two encores, Characteristic March No. 1 D. 968b and the inevitable March Militaire No. 1 D. 733, are played much more quickly than the music requires, but then the point here is simply to wow the audience, and I'd be the last person to deny Kissin and Levine a bit of fun after such a long and tiring program. RCA's engineers also deserve credit not just for leaving out the audience (even though there's a good bit of applause around and between works), but also for finding a sonic framework that minimizes clatter while maximizing clarity. The two-piano (or piano duo) medium can come across as overly thick and unpleasantly dense, but the slight dryness of the acoustic seems just the ticket in this case. In short, what must have been a splendid live event has been captured for posterity with total success. You might prefer this or that version of individual works, but taken as whole this is pretty special.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Schubert Sonatas

Former chair of the New England Conservatory piano department, the pianist and composer Victor Rosenbaum presents a collection of works written by Schubert in the last year of his life. With the omnipresent harmonic and melodic sophistication that characterized Schubert's compositions, Music From His Last Year further confirms that relative to his young age of 31, his was an astonishingly complex body of work that continues to compel and inspire us today.

Classical Music