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Schubert: 3 sonatas (1816)

Peter Sheppard Skærved violin, Julian Perkins square piano
58:38
(Divine Art) athene ath 23208

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This is part of an ongoing series by the violinist and historian Peter Sheppard Skærved devoted to historic violins. For this traversal of the three sonatas composed by Schubert in 1816, he is playing an instrument made in 1782 by the most renowned member of a German family of makers, Martin Leopold Widhalm. As heard here the instrument has a bright, at times rather thin upper range, but satisfyingly full and rounded middle and lower gamut. Sheppard Skærved plays the sonatas using an early Tourte bow (c.1770-1780). Julian Perkins, his pianist on this occasion, plays on a square piano built by Clementi and Co in 1812. While it stresses the domestic purposes for which the music was composed, there are times in more demanding passages where I felt the need for an instrument with greater body. However, as Perkin’s modestly points out in his notes, this is just one of many ways of playing these works.

Both players are understandably protective about the music which as their comprehensive notes makes clear they have thought about in considerable detail and value greatly. All three are indeed pleasing if to my mind hardly memorable works in which, as in the sonatas of Mozart, the piano is often the leader when it comes to presenting thematic material. The D-major is the slightest of the three, having only three movements as opposed to the four of the two minor-key sonatas. But its Andante has a charming little march-like theme, the kind of thing one might expect to accompany a child playing at soldiers. Both the A-minor and G-minor sonatas explore both the melancholy and restlessness one might expect, though to my mind not too profoundly and I have to admit to finding the Mozartian echoes that Sheppard Skærved identifies in the latter to be rather distant ones.

It is so manifestly obvious that much thought, care and affection has gone into this project that it makes it exceedingly hard to confess that I find the results to be in major respects unsatisfying. The principle problem is that Sheppard Skærved’s tone, at least as recorded here, is less than agreeable, especially in the upper range where it too often sounds acidic. Neither is his intonation always reliable and one victim is his frequent perfectly legitimate use of portamento (or portes de voix). In respects such as bowing and phrasing, the violin playing is certainly musical, and in unassertive passages where the music sits in a comfortable mid-range – the beguilingly ambiguous opening of the A-minor’s finale for example – the results can be pleasing. Julian Perkin’s contribution is stylish and technically excellent, although as suggested above I’d have preferred a rather less modest instrument; it would have given a more dramatic sound to, for example, some of the stormier passages in the opening Allegro moderato of D.385.

In sum, this is a CD that deserves the attention of anyone interested in historical instruments and an intelligent approach to playing them, but despite the integrity of the performances I’m afraid it is simply not possible to overlook technical flaws.

Brian Robins

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Recording

Schubert: Lebensstürme

Music for piano four-hands
DUO PLEYEL (Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya, Richard Egarr)
77:11
Linn Records CKD 593

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As with most other mediums in which he worked, Schubert left a large legacy of music for piano four-hands, extending as it does to some sixty works. Largely little known today, most were composed for domestic use at the ‘Schubertiads’ hosted by the composer’s Viennese friends. The present selection includes two works dating from 1818, the Rondo in D, D. 608 and the Sonata in B flat, D. 617 along with three from 1828, the year of his death: the Rondo in A, D. 951; the so-called ‘Lebensstürme’ Allegro in A minor, D. 947; and his undoubted masterpiece in the form, the Fantasie in F minor, D. 940. They are performed by the Duo Pleyel (Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr) on a beautiful Pleyel fortepiano of 1848, an instrument capable of a range extending from the massive quasi-orchestral sonorities at times asked from it in D. 947 and D. 940 to pearl-like pianissimo cascades descending from high in the treble register, D. 951, in particular, providing exquisite examples. Above all, it demonstrates across the range a variety of colour and nuance not possible to achieve on a modern piano

In the course of a brief but interesting note, Egarr quotes Schubert as claiming that there is ‘no such thing as happy music’, a highly romantic concept that the 21-year-old composer himself contradicted to a considerable extent in D. 608 and D. 617. The Rondo is founded on a perky theme with the character of a German Dance and if there are later disturbed interludes, it is the warm, poetic glow of the final episode that lingers more in the mind. Likewise, the B-flat Sonata opens with an innocuous flowing theme, played here with beguiling, unaffected charm, even if the modulations of the development do wander through unsettled, briefly stormy territory. The main theme of the central Andante con moto occupies sad, ambiguous territory temporarily assuaged by the lovely lyrical secondary idea, while the animated Allegretto offers up the opportunity for Duo Pleyel to demonstrate virtuosity with their fleet and agile fingerwork.

The main theme of the A-major Rondo, too, offers up a mood of contented innocence, perhaps redolent of one of the happier early songs in Die Schöne Müllerin, though the first episode moves to fantasia-like uncertainly. The magnificent ‘Lebensstürme’ (the storms of life) movement, cast in sonata form, displays both instrument and performers at their grandest, the big, immensely impressive sonority matched by playing of magisterial authority. The magnificent Fantasie opens with one of those heaven-sent Schubertian melodies that occupies a fragile place between nostalgic, sad reminiscence and the Elysian fields. Thereafter the work becomes an epic, twenty minutes of continuous music that veers from dance to chords as fierce and jagged as bleak mountain peaks, from playful shimmering scalic showers to a contrapuntal development of the opening theme as uncompromising as anything Bach wrote.

It should already be apparent from the above that the performances are richly rewarding. Technically near-flawless – I noticed tiny moments of blurring of texture – with a judicious choice of tempo and highly sensitive to the wide emotional range, they can be recommended without reservation. And if you don’t know the music, especially the late works, then it is high time you made its acquaintance!

Brian Robins

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Recording

Haydn : String Quartets opp 71 & 74

The London Haydn Quartet
155:52 (2 CDs)
hyperion CDA 68230

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Haydn’s opp 71 and 74 sets of string quartets were composed in Vienna in 1793 between his two London visits, and with London performances very much in mind. It is not too fanciful to speculate that the earlier London performances of some of Haydn’s op 64 quartets, the first time the composer had witnessed his quartets being presented to large audiences, may have influenced the style of the two later sets of quartets, which may sometimes seem to sacrifice intimacy in favour of a more public musicality, with boldly declamatory melodies and occasional flamboyant gestures. The London Haydn Quartet’s choice of acoustic, the relatively intimate ambience of Potton Hall, may seem to be at odds with this, and (to begin with) I found the relatively cramped sound a little off-putting. The Quartet’s superlative playing soon helped to overcome this, and the smaller bloom allows the listener to focus on their impeccable technical prowess, warm tone and perfect balance. Playing period instruments, the Quartet has also returned to the original 1796 publications of both sets, but more importantly, like their fellow period-instrument quartet the Quatuor Mosaïques, their freshness of approach allows us to experience this music as if it was new. The group was founded in 2000 with the specific aim of exploring the chamber music of Haydn on period instruments, and this delightful and packed double CD set provides wonderfully eloquent accounts of some of Haydn’s most satisfying string quartets.

D.James Ross

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Recording

Beethoven transformed volume 1

Boxwood & Brass
61:40
Resonus Res10249

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This is the first volume of a projected exploration of Harmonie-Musik, including original music by Beethoven, as well as arrangements of his music by his contemporaries – hence the ‘transformed’. Thus it is that we have an arrangement for the standard Harmonie ensemble of two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons of Beethoven’s celebrated Septet, originally conceived for strings and wind. I have always struggled slightly to like Beethoven’s Septet – a disgraceful admission for a clarinettist – and remember vividly my heart sinking when, during a performance by the BPO Soloists, it dawned on me that they were going to do all the repeats… So it came as a surprise to hear the piece afresh in Czerny’s clever arrangement. To cover the violin part, he takes the first clarinet into risky and exciting altissimo territory, realised with enormous skill and panache on her boxwood clarinet by Emily Worthington. Perhaps it is precisely Beethoven’s rather cautious writing for the wind instruments in the original op 20 that failed to charm me – whatever the reason, Czerny’s arrangement is a valuable rediscovery, which to my mind enhances the original. The Septet’s companion piece on this CD is one of Beethoven’s actual Sextets, a later work (op 71), by which time the composer felt free to be more adventurous with the wind instruments. Both works are given charming performances by Boxwood and Brass, and indeed the distinctive sounds of their period instruments help to bring this music vividly to life. I have enjoyed very much both of the previous CDs by this enterprising group, and await with interest the continuation of this promising series.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Mendelssohn: String Symphonies Vol. 3

Margot Oitzinger, L’Orfeo Barockorchester, Michi Gaigg
68:58
cpo 555 202-2

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For many years Mendelssohn’s ‘string symphonies’ were dismissed as juvenilia, but in the case of a prodigious genius like Mendelssohn one should be wary of dismissing anything on the grounds of youth. Once they were more frequently performed and recorded, it became apparent that these are as remarkable as much of the composer’s other youthful projects. In these sizzling period instrument recordings the Orfeo Baroque Orchestra take this process of rehabilitation a stage further, bringing out the subtleties of works which turn out to be much richer and more dynamic than hitherto suspected. Bearing in mind the domestic context of their original performance, they use reduced forces (particularly at the lower end) allowing the light to fall on the highly innovative textures the young composer conjures up – take for example the opening section of the slow movement of the 8th symphony where a solo ensemble of violas and cello gives the music the texture of a lugubrious Romantic concerto grosso. Relying on accounts of the initial performances as well as common sense, these versions include a fortepiano playing a sort of continuo. This is highly plausible and in practice utterly convincing. This third volume in what looks like a projected complete account of the string symphonies presents the 8th and 9th symphonies, and as a delightful bonus the substantial Scene for alto and string orchestra ‘Ce vuoi mio cor’ MNV H1, sung expressively and dramatically by Margot Oitzinger. As fascinating as the demanding vocal part are the textures of the string accompaniment. It is exciting to see this music, composed for family matinee concerts chez Mendelssohn around 1825, being taken a little more seriously, and being given thoughtful and technically polished period instrument performances. As they branch out so successfully into the music of the 19th century, is this a group trapped slightly in its over-specific name?

D. James Ross

 

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Recording

Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano

Robin Michael cello, Daniel Tong fortepiano
148:08 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
resonus RES10254

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These effervescent accounts of Beethoven’s five cello sonatas and three sets of variations, two based on themes from Mozart’s Magic Flute and a third based on “See the Conquering Hero Comes” from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, make a marvellous two-CD set. Both Michael and Tong are natural beethovenians and bring out the wit, lyricism and intelligence of some of Beethoven’s finest chamber music. I have sat through a live performance on modern instruments of the five sonatas, split into two recitals (afternoon and evening) and was made increasingly aware of the shortcomings of modern instrument performances of Beethoven, as the dense lefthand work on the piano tended to blur into a wall of sound. This is instantly solved by the 1805 Walter copy fortepiano, played here by Daniel Tong, which delineates beautifully the busy bass passages, while adding a silvery lightness to the upper range. I think too that Robin Michael’s 1695 Goffriller copy overcomes the other problem for modern instrument players, the tendency for the cello to ‘over-resonate’ in certain ranges, which is fine for later romantic repertoire, but tends to ‘clog up’ classical music. The lovely clean sound of these period instrument accounts is partly a testimony to these lovely instruments, but also of course to the skills of the players, both of whom also play modern instruments, but who have adapted their techniques admirably to bring out the best from these instruments. Anyone who doesn’t know the Beethoven cello sonatas is in for a treat, but I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the variations sets. I am not a natural lover of Beethoven’s variations – indeed the set for piano trio on Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu is one of my all-time concert pet hates – but these translucent accounts won me over.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Chamber Music of Clara Schumann

Byron Schenkman 1875 Streicher piano, Jesse Irons violin, Kate Bennett Wadsworth cello
57:51
BSF191

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Byron Schenkman must be used to reading rave reviews in/on Early Music Review. Almost everything he does – across a vast range of musical styles – garners praise from whichever of our reviewers I send the discs to. This time, I decided to keep the disc for myself, mostly because I have long wondered why Clara Schumann remains outside the musical mainstream when the music I’ve heard by her is outstanding. With his colleagues, Jesse Irons and Kate Bennett Wadsworth, Byron has merely underlined my disbelief; the three Romances op. 22 are more than capable of holding their own in any violin recital (the first is in the challenging key of D flat major!), the G minor Piano trio op. 17 held my wrapt attention for the duration (and I have to confess that there are few such works that have managed that!), and the Romance from her teenage Piano concerto op. 7 (how audacious of a 16 year old to write the central movement of a work whose home key is A minor in A flat major!) which I had initially thought a miscalculated way to end the disc (after Schenkman’s immaculate readings of her husband’s Kinderszenen op. 15) turned out to be a poignant “yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is that talent that was the young Clara Schumann, who (being a dutiful wife) largely abandoned her creative genius in favour of supporting her husband”. In a short additional note, the cellist explains that research into 19th-century performance practice has broadened the palette of interpretative techniques at the group’s disposal. These are deployed appropriately and it is obvious throughout that the trio have an excellent rapport, such is the precision of their ensemble playing, despite the rhythmic ebb and flow. So full marks to performers, recording engineer, piano technicians and, last but not least, the still underrated composer! An hour of unmitigated pleasure.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Immortal Beloved

Beethoven Arias
Chen Reiss soprano, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr, Oliver Wass harp
58:52
Onyx 4218

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The Israeli soprano Chen Reiss starts an interesting note by addressing the much aired question of Beethoven’s writing for the voice. Is it awkward and unidiomatic or, as she writes, does it feature ‘sequences that are uncomfortable to sing, that don’t sit where the voice (or the audience) would like them to sit’? I think there are elements of truth in both viewpoints and there are surely also reservations to be made regarding Beethoven’s handling of larger scale vocal forms in his earlier works. Both in the case of the aria ‘Fliesse, Wonnezähre, fliesse’, set to an embarrassingly banal text as a part of an unperformed Cantata for the Accession of Leopold II, WoO 88 in 1790 and the large scale scena ‘Primo amore’ WoO 92 (1790-92), possibly associated with Beethoven’s own ‘first love’ (Reiss and the notes by Andrew Stewart disagree on the identity of the lady in question) show Beethoven producing overblown settings that display all the indiscipline of talented, over-reaching youth. It is perhaps not without significance that the most impressive aspect of ‘Fliesse’ is the concertante writing for flute and cello.

Far superior is the more modestly proportioned (and therefore more effective) scena ‘No, non turbati’, WoO 92a, one of several texts by Metastasio that Beethoven set or worked on while he was studying vocal composition with Salieri around the turn of the century. Here Beethoven responds to the lover’s turmoil in the stormy recitative, while finding Mozartian eloquence in the succeeding aria. Mozart – in the form of Die Entführung’s Blondchen – also comes to mind in the delightful aria ‘Soll ein Schuh’, an insert in the Singspiel Die schöne Schusterin by Umlauf. And talk of Blondchen leads to Marzelline in Fidelio, whose ‘O wär’ ich schon’ finds her daydreaming of an imagined future life with ‘Fidelio’.

In addition to the works mentioned above Reiss includes another rarity in the shape of the Romanza, WoO 96, one of four pieces of incidental music Beethoven wrote for the Johann Duncker’s tragedy Leonora Prohaska in 1815, in addition to better known fare in the shape of Clärchen’s songs from the incidental music to Egmont and the great scena ‘Ah, perfido’, op 65.

Chen Reiss has built up a considerable reputation in Europe in recent years, where she is currently a member of the Vienna State Opera. Her vocal quality is unusual in that it has a warm, burnished beauty that has made her an admired interpreter of Richard Strauss, while equally owning a tonal security, purity and flexibility that allows her to sing earlier music (I heard her as a sensitive Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante in Vienna at the end of 2019). This applies particularly to a middle register that is sumptuous yet also refined, though the upper register can have a tendency to become shrill when pushed. Her singing of all the music on the present CD is extremely rewarding, with considerable sensitivity brought to ‘Ma tu tremi’, the aria from WoO 92a, the humour of the Singspiel aria about the pleasures of a new pair of shoes nicely caught. Above all Reiss rises splendidly to the greater challenges of ‘Ah, perfido’, the words ‘Ah no!, ah no! fermate’ in the recitative inflected with real meaning, while in the succeeding aria the mezza voce at the words ‘io d’affano morirò’, the last carrying a hint of portamento, is deeply touching.

The Academy of Ancient Music under Richard Egarr provide unfailingly sympathetic support, as does Oliver Wass’ solo harp in the song from Leonora Prohaska, to which Reiss appropriately gives a more intimate feel.

With its unusual repertoire and excellent performances this bids fair to become one of the more attractive offerings of the Beethoven anniversary.

Brian Robins

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Mozart & Beethoven [keyboard music]

Thomas Leininger fortepiano
78:14
Talbot Records TR1901
K331, 332, 397; Sonata in F, op 2/1

Depending on your point of view, this may be ‘a breath of fresh air’, ‘wilful distortion of the music’ or a bit of both. The programme begins with a reasonably orthodox performance of Mozart’s D minor fantasia K397. Thereafter each of the three well-known sonatas is prefaced by an improvisatory prelude based on ideas and suggestions taken from Clementi and Czerny, and this improvisatory style is carried into the sonatas themselves, with much and sometimes quite extreme variation of tempo; ornamentation; mini-cadenzas; dis-location between the hands; and far more use of the moderator lever than any other player I have heard.

As far as I am concerned this last feature is especially welcome – I’ve often wondered why players, both ‘modern’ and HIP, don’t do it more.* What I do query is the inclusion on a recording of the preludes. Of their very nature these are transitory and ephemeral but the ‘document’ nature of a CD seems to accord them a quasi-canonic status that they don’t really have. But this could also be said of ornaments, of course. Of the other distinctive features of the playing I found the tempo variation the most disturbing and the least convincing: sometimes the effect was comparable to a beginner’s speeding up in the easy passages and slowing down when the going gets tougher. But the additional ornaments are more than welcome.

The booklet (in English and German) says nothing about the music itself – perhaps it is regarded as too familiar to need it. And I do think you should hear this recital: it does question ‘standard practice’ and that’s to be applauded.

David Hansell

*Sir Andras Schiff is a notable exception. At a recital I attended he was positively dancing over all three of his Steinway’s pedals – though not when he was playing Bach!

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The Jupiter Project

Mozart [arranged by] Hummel, Cramer, Clementi
David Owen Norris fortepiano, Katy Bircher flute, Caroline Balding violin, Andrew Skidmore cello
79:49
hyperion CDA68234

In their informative programme note, David Owen-Norris and Mark Everist make the very good point that in the early 19th century in the absence of gramophone and radio and in light of the expense and scarcity of full orchestral performances, most people would have become acquainted with the music of Mozart in chamber arrangements which they could experience much more easily or even play for themselves. We would recall the very pleasing arrangements for string quartet, flute and piano made towards the end of the 18th century by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon of Haydn’s symphonies for just such a purpose, and similar efforts were made in the early 19th century to bring Mozart’s music to a wider audience. Johann Nepomuck Hummel’s arrangements of Mozart’s overtures to Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro are recorded in delightful performances here, but the two major works are a brilliant transcription of the C major Piano Concert no 21 by Johann Baptist Cramer and Muzio Clementi’s remarkable transcription of the “Jupiter” Symphony, no 41. Contemporaries commented on these transcriptions as if they were original chamber pieces, and such is the inventiveness of the arrangers, particularly in the two larger pieces, that we can understand this. As a student of Mozart, Clementi seems particularly at ease with his master’s music, and the arrangement of the “Jupiter” Symphony is indeed a masterpiece of its genre. There is of course a whole orchestral palette missing, but the arranger’s job is to convince you to the contrary, and Clementi makes such masterly use of his four instruments that you forget about all the missing ones. This intriguing CD, the result of a project at the University of Southampton, is valuable addition to our understanding of the propagation of music in the 19th century as well as being thoroughly engaging and entertaining in its own right.

D. James Ross