Schubert Archive
SCHUBERT: Late Piano Works Vol 1 – Andrea Lucchesini, piano – Audite
A deeper look at Schubert’s later works…
Weber & Schubert: Piano Sonatas – Paul Lewis – Harmonia mundi
Two divergent visions of Romantic Piano Music, through Paul Lewis’ gifted hands…
Steven Isserlis Plays Chopin, Schubert, Franchomme – Steven Isserlis, cello/ Denes Varjon, piano – Hyperion
A combination of scholarly authenticity and persuasive passions, this Isserlis recital of Chopin and Schubert testifies to a labor of love.
Franz SCHUBERT: Die Nacht – Anja Lechner, Pablo Marquez – ECM
A tranquil Schubertiad featuring lieder and nocturnes arranged for cello and guitar.
Carlo Grante plays Schubert = Hungarian Melody; Moments Musicaux; Drei Klavierstuecke – Music&Arts
Carlo Grante “grants” us a generous selection of Schubert’s piano works, resonant and spirited.
Minor Major – Oslo String Quartet – Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11; Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 – 2L
2L can always be counted on for exceptional audiophile pleasing fidelity, and they always seem to get the music right in terms of performance and selection.
Jascha Spivakovsky: Bach to Bloch, Volume VI – Jascha Spivakovsky, piano – Pristine Audio
The sixth volume in the Spivakovsky legacy adds virtuoso color to an already seamless stylistic presence.
The Music Treasury for 8 July 2018 — Pianist Dimitri Bashkirov
Dimitri Bashkirov will be featured in this week presentation of The Music Treasury. Bashkirov received distinguished awards while a student at the Moscow Conservatory, to be followed honors received in his career which includes concerti with internationally renown orchestras, chamber music, and solo recitals. This week show airs between 19:00 and 21:00 PDT on its host station KZSU in the Bay Area, and can be heard concurrently streamed through the ‘Net: kzsu.stanford.edu. Host Gary Lemco met and interviewed Mr. Bashkirov at the 1993 Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, MI and will recall a few of their remarks in the evening show. Pianist Dimitri Bashkirov A pianist and piano teacher, Mr. Bashkirov, studied in Tiblisi, Georgia with Anastasia Wirsaladze, and then at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with distinguished Russian pedagogue, Professor A. Alexander Goldenweiser. Bashkirov’s name has been known to the public since 1955, when he received the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. Following his Paris success, Mr. Bashkirov has played with numerous distinguished international orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under conductors such […]
Carlo Zecchi: The Complete Cetra Solo Recordings – Carlo Zecchi, piano/ Arrigo Tassinari, flute/ Giaconda da Vito, violin/ E.L.A.R. Symphony Orchestra/ Fernando Previtali – APR
The piano artistry of Italian master Carlo Zecchi finds a resplendent tribute in Obert-Thorn’s meticulous restoration.
Impromptu = Impromptus by SCHUBERT; CHOPIN; IVES; DVORAK; GERSHWIN:; BEETHOVEN; LISZT – Shai Wosner, piano – Onyx
Shai Wosner offers a “jam session” of diverse improvisations by composers whose keyboard mastery shines through each selection. Impromptu = SCHUBERT: Impromptu in F minor, D. 935, No. 1; Impromptu in B-flat Major, D. 935, No. 3; Impromptu in A-flat Major, D.. 935, No. 2; Impromptu in F minor, D. 935, No. 4; CHOPIN: Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat Major, Op. 29; Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 51; IVES: Impromptu for piano III; Impromptu for piano I; DVORAK: Impromptu in D minor; GERSHWIN: Impromptu in Two Keys; BEETHOVEN: Fantasy in G minor, Op. 77; LISZT: Impromptu (Nocturne) – Shai Wosner, piano – Onyx 4172, 74:43 (5/5/17) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: Pianist Shai Wosner (b. 1976) explores the art of the improvisation, as inscribed by several composers who embrace a diversity of styles. Wosner credits his teacher Andre Hajdu with having instilled in him the love of spontaneous creation at the keyboard that assumes a telos all its own. Though certain such creations seem formless, they often reveal a ternary or rondo structure; and in some cases, such as the Beethoven Fantasia in G minor (1809), conceived for Muzio Clementi as a virtuoso vehicle, the result emerges as […]
The Music Treasury for 6 May 2018 – The Hungarian String Quartet
The Hungarian String Quartet For a significant portion of the 20th century, the Hungarian Quartet was a defining voice for string quartet literature. In addition to the quartets of the classical and romantic periods, they were involved with the new music of the time, presenting the premier performance of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5. The show, hosted by Dr Gary Lemco, can be heard in the Bay Area on radio station KZSU, as well throughout the Internet, at kzsu.stanford.edu, Sunday 6 April 2018 from 19:00 to 21:00, PDT. The show will feature works by Glazunov, Beethoven, Kodaly, and concludes with Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet. History of the Hungarian String Quartet The Hungarian String Quartet (founded 1935; disbanded 1972) was originally brought together with Sándor Végh (a pupil of Jenő Hubay and Zoltán Kodály at Budapest Academy) as the first violin, but achieved a balanced footing in 1937 when the virtuoso violinist Zoltán Székely (graduate of the same Academy, along with the Quartet’s violist, Dénes Koromzay (1913–2001) was recruited. At that point Sándor Végh moved to the second violin desk, and in 1940 he left to found the Végh Quartet. He was replaced by the Russian, Alexandre Moszkowsky. […]
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata D. 960; Fantasie for piano, four hands, D. 940; Marche militaire, D. 733 – Philippe Entremont, piano/ Gen Tomuro, piano – Solo Musica
Philippe Entremont fulfills a personal project to record the Schubert keyboard music he most treasures. SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, D. 960; Fantasie in f minor for Piano, Four hands, D. 940; Marche militaire in D Major, D. 733, No. 1 – Philippe Entremont, piano/ Gen Tomuro, piano – Solo Musica SM 276, 68:42 (2/2/18) [Distr. by Sony] ****: Sometime around 1980 I met and spoke to Philippe Entremont (b. 1934) after a recital at the Atlanta Fox Theater, during which I mentioned how appropriate I thought his tone and touch would suit the music of Schubert. “I dearly love Schubert,” Entremont replied, “but I have yet to address him in the recording studio.” Now, almost 40 years later, Entremont fulfills his own, long-deferred project to record Schubert’s music for posterity. He chooses as his major work Schubert’s late (1828) Sonata in B-flat Major, the last of a triptych that testify to something like Schubert’s inner compulsion to express himself in the form. The already expansive first movement Molto moderato assumes even greater breadth with Entremont’s taking the repeat. A realization of Schubert’s sensitivity to loss, the music interrupts the opening statement with a disturbed trill on […]
Four Pianos/Four Pieces = SCHUBERT: Wanderer-Fantasie; CHOPIN: Etudes, Op. 10; LISZT: Réminiscences de Don Juan; STRAVINSKY: Petruchka – Alexander Melnikov, pianos – Harmonia mundi
Four Pianos/Four Pieces = SCHUBERT: Wanderer-Fantasie in C Major, D. 760; CHOPIN: 12 Etudes, Op. 10; LISZT: Reminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418; STRAVINSKY: Trois Mouvements de Petruchka – Alexander Melnikov, pianos – Harmonia mundi HMM 902299, 79:34 (3/9/18) ****: Alexander Melnikov addresses four keyboard works in terms of their contemporary instruments, and the results often astound. Recorded October 2016-July 2017, these performances realize a project conceived by pianist Alexander Melnikov to select four significant keyboard works and to play them on instruments contextually relevant to the cultural milieu. The opening 1822 Wanderer Fantasy of Franz Schubert Melnikov realizes on an instrument by Alois Graf (c. 1828-1835), which permits Melnikov—even in spite of six and one half octave range—astonishing resonance and pungency, given the sheer technical virtuosity and sonority of acoustical motion the piece requires. The pounding opening bars pay homage to Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, while the later melodic tissue derives from Schubert’s own song—so spiritually endemic of the Romantic Age—Der Wanderer. The single-movement structure, subdividing into four sections, becomes a Schubert trademark, eventually spawning likenesses in Liszt’s b minor Sonata and the string sextet Verklaerte Nacht of Schoenberg. The lyrical transitions into E Major and E-flat Major occur with […]
Nikolai Sokoloff and the Cleveland Orchestra: Complete Recordings, 1924-28 – The Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff – Pristine Audio
Recording and audio restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has a coup in the form of the complete recordings (for the Brunswick label) of Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff (1886-1965), the first leader of the Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff and the Cleveland Orchestra: Complete Recordings, 1924-28 = BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor; BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in g minor; Symphony No. 2: Allegretto; DELIBES: Coppelia: Entr’acte and Valse; DVORAK: Slavonic Dance in D, Op. 46, No. 3; GRAINGER: Shepherd’s Hey; HALVORSEN: Entry March of the Boyars; NICOLAI: The Merry Wives of Windsor – Overture; PIERNE: Cydalise et le Chevre-Pied: Entrance of the Little Fauns; RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 2 in e minor, Op. 27; Prelude in c-sharp minor; RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Song of India; SAINT-SAENS: Danse Macabre, Op. 40; SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 in b minor, D. 759 “Unfinished”; SCHUMANN: Trauemerei, Op. 15, No. 7; SIBELIUS: Valse Triste, Op. 44; Finlandia, Op. 26; J. STRAUSS: On the Beautiful Blue Danube; Tales from the Vienna Woods; TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture, Op. 49; Sleeping Beauty – Waltz, Op. 66; WAGNER: Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 3; Bridal Chorus – The Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff – Pristine Audio PASC 524 (3 CDs) TT: 3 hrs 20 secs [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: […]
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonatas D. 784, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony
The combination of Schubert and Szymanowski makes strange, emotionally charged bedfellows. SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata No. 14 in a minor, D. 784; Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony 88985465632, 68:00 911/17/17) ****: In these recordings (10-15 July 2017), pianist Lucas Debargue proves himself no ordinary Schubert disciple, opting for a deliberate, thoughtful approach that often eschews musical violence for soft gradations of nuance. He opens his Schubert portion of this disc with the 1823 a minor Sonata, D. 784, an often grimly turbulent work, likely related to a poem, “A Prayer,” that Schubert himself composed when alerted to the various bodily maladies that would eventually consume him. The dramatically fixated Allegro giusto moves in vehement, punishing units of sound, spare in texture, tragic in tone. Tremolandos and massive chordal progressions alternate without affording us emotional consolation, even in the key of E Major. Perhaps some relief extends outward in the brief F Major Andante, whose pianissimo unfolding subdues the mortal storm. The concluding Allegro vivace proceeds in the manner of a stormy Chopin etude, suddenly breaking off into a syncopated second subject. […]
Amit Peled: The Peabody Cello Gang = Works by SCHUBERT; POPPER; HANDEL – Amit Peled, cello/ The Peabody Cello Gang/ Andrea Casarrubios, cello/ Eli Kalman and Hui-Chuan Chen, pianos – CTM
Amit Peled and his students engage us in music of Schubert, Popper, and Handel. Amit Peled: The Peabody Cello Gang = SCHUBERT: Arpeggione Sonata in a minor, D. 821; POPPER: Requiem, OP. 66; HANDEL: Sonata for 2 Cellos in g minor, Op. 2, No. 8 – Amit Peled, cello/ The Peabody Cello Gang/ Andrea Casarrubios, cello/ Eli Kalman and Hui-Chuan Chen, pianos – CTM Classics 50:07 (10/27/17) [www.amitpeled.com] ****: Israeli cellist Amit Peled sports the 1733 Goffriler instrument that formerly belonged to Pablo Casals, and he relishes the mission to spread the “Casals sound” globally. Peled’s association with fellow cellists Bernard Greenhouse and Boris Pergamenschikow gave birth to the idea of assembling Peled’s own students into a chest of players who perform special arrangements for cello ensemble. Peled and his Cello Gang—of three other cellos—open with Schubert’s 1824 Arpeggione Sonata, virtually the only extant composition for this instrumental curio, a hybrid of bowed guitar with frets. A consort of cellos plays the bass line while Peled sails along with the lovely Allegro moderato. The middle movement, an Adagio in E Major, serves as a transition ot the A Major Allegretto finale. Melodious and seamlessly intimate, the work more than […]
Best Classical of 2017 – I
Best of the Year Classical List for 2017 Recommendations by Steven Ritter Mahler: Symphony No. 8 – Mormon Tabernacle Choir/ Utah Symphony/ Thierry Fischer – Reference Recordings Spectacular, moving, and, well, what else do you need? Link to Review GORDON GETTY: The Canterville Ghost – Oper Leipzig/ Gewandhausorchester/ Matthias Foremny – Pentatone A splendid addition to the Getty catalog, one of his best works. Link to Review SHOSTAKOVICH: Symph. No. 5; BARBER: Adagio for Strings – Pittsburgh Symph. Orch./Manfred Hobeck – Reference Recordings A breathtaking release of crushing power. Link to Review Recommendations by Gary Lemco Reiner conducts Wagner Pristine Audio PASC 517 Fritz Reiner’s legacy of Wagner from shellac sources proves memorably striking, given a fine restoration by Pristine Audio. Link To Review Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 7 – Koussevitzky/BSO – Pristine Audio PASC 515 Previously unreleased Beethoven performances by Koussevitzky and BSO add significant documents to that conductor’s recorded legacy. Link To Review Kathleen Ferrier Remembered Somm CD 264 The restoration of long-buried Kathleen Ferrier archives warrants our unconditional praise and support. Link To Review Dvorak: String Quartet, Op. 105; String […]
TEN BEST CLASSICAL OF 2017 – II
Best of the Year Classical List for 2017 Recommendations by Fritz Balwit Bela Bartok: Complete String Quartets – Heath Quartet – Harmonia Mundi 907661.62 This young quartet has achieved the highest levels of concentration on this complete set of the quartets. All aspects of Bartok, from prickly agitation and folk humor to serene contrapuntal abstraction, are perfectly rendered. There is real excitement in the playing and the soundscape is outstanding. This recording narrowly edges out a release by the superb Chiara quartet, which, uniquely, plays the music without scores. Bjarte EIKE: The Ale-House Sessions – Rubicon 1017 This recording, reviewed on these pages this past summer, has only gotten better with repeated listening. Bjarte Eike has succeeded in presenting a frothy, joyous and surprising repertoire of Purcellian inspired fiddle music to popular audiences. The fiddlers can bawl out sea-shanties as well, but when Mr. Eike turns his bowing talent to a lament, there won’t be a dry eye in the house. Grand fun and superb musicianship. Star rating has been upgraded to *****! Link to Review DVORAK & SCHUBERT: String Quartets “Death and the Maiden” & “American” – The Dragon Quartet – Channel Classic 39417 Four […]
TEN BEST CLASSICAL OF 2017 – II
TEN BEST CLASSICAL OF 2017 – Fritz Balwit Bela Bartok: Complete String Quartets – Heath Quartet – Harmonia Mundi 907661.62 This young quartet has achieved the highest levels of concentration on this complete set of the quartets. All aspects of Bartok, from prickly agitation and folk humor to serene contrapuntal abstraction, are perfectly rendered. There is real excitement in the playing and the soundscape is outstanding. This recording narrowly edges out a release by the superb Chiara quartet, which, uniquely, plays the music without scores. Bjarte EIKE: The Ale-House Sessions – Rubicon 1017 This recording, reviewed on these pages this past summer, has only gotten better with repeated listening. Bjarte Eike has succeeded in presenting a frothy, joyous and surprising repertoire of Purcellian inspired fiddle music to popular audiences. The fiddlers can bawl out sea-shanties as well, but when Mr. Eike turns his bowing talent to a lament, there won’t be a dry eye in the house. Grand fun and superb musicianship. Star rating has been upgraded to *****! Link to Review DVORAK & SCHUBERT: String Quartets “Death and the Maiden” & “American” – The Dragon Quartet – Channel Classic 39417 Four young Chinese musicians, who have established […]
Streams and Podcasts for 10 December 2017
This week’s Music Treasury features another distinguished conductor/composer from the 1900s, Paul Kletzki. Paul Kletzki was a gifted composer early in his career, and shifted to conducting after World War II. He was particularly noted for his interpretation of Romantic music, and has over 100 recordings to his credit. This week, the show will be highlighting Kletzki’s interpretations of Schumann, Schubert, Dvorak, Berlioz and others, culminating with the lush slow C-minor movement of Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. Hosted by Dr Gary Lemco, the show can be heard on 10 December 2017, between 19:00 and 21:00 PST, as well a streaming broadcast through kzsulive.stanford.edu. Selections: Schumann: Overture, Scherzo and Finale in E-flat Major Dvorak: 3 Slavonic Dances: Wagner: Traume (Wesenonck Lieder) Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, “Unfinished” Berlioz: Overture, Le Corsair Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major Beethoven: Marche Funebre from Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Eroica”
Vilde Frang: Homage = Violin Music by RIES; SCHUMANN; WIENIAWSKI; GLUCK; SCHUBERT; POLDOWSKI; DEBUSSY; SCRIABIN; KREISLER; DVORAK; PROKOFIEV; ALBENIZ; PONCE; BAZZINI; MENDELSSOHN – Vilde Frang / Jose Gallardo – Warner
Vilde Frang: Homage = RIES: La capricciosa; SCHUMANN: Widmung; WIENIAWSKI: “Obertass” Mazurka; Caprice in E-flat; GLUCK: Melodie; SCHUBERT: Ballet Music from “Rosamunde”; POLDOWSKI: Tango; DEBUSSY: La plus que lente; SCRIABIN: Etude, Op. 8, No. 10; KREISLER: Gypsy Caprice; Rondino; DVORAK: Slavonic Dance in e minor; PROKOFIEV: Masks; ALBENIZ: Sevilla; PONCE: Estrellita; BAZZINI: Calabrese, OP. 34, No. 6; MENDELSSOHN: Song without Words, Op. 62, No. 1 – Vilde Frang, violin/ Jose Gallardo, piano – Warner Classics 0190295605326, 54:51 ****: Vilde Frang “indulges” her talents by paying homage to composers in transcriptions by masters of her instrument. Norwegian Violin virtuoso Vilde Frang (b. 1986) pays literal homage to the pedagogues and luminaries of the past with seventeen pieces and arrangements (rec. March 2017) made for her chosen instrument by the likes of Auer, Kreisler, Heifetz, and Szigeti. Frang performs on an 1854 Jean-Baptiste Vauillaume, opening her suave program with an “undoctored” original piece from 1925, La capricciosa, by Franz Ries (1846-1932), a work that slides and cavorts in flirtatious gestures, then breaks into a spiffy version of a Brahms Hungarian Dance. The fine lied from Schumann’s Op. 25 Myrthen, “Widmung” makes as ravishing a violin transcription (by Leopold Auer) as it does […]
Kathleen Ferrier Remembered = Songs by SCHUBERT, BRAHMS, WOLF, MAHLER, STANFORD, RUBBRA, JACOBSON, PARRY – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto – SOMM Recordings
Kathleen Ferrier Remembered = Schubert: 9 Lieder; BRAHMS: 9 Lieder; WOLF: “Auf einer Wanderung”; MAHLER: “Urlicht” from Des Knaben Wunderhorn; STANFORD: “La Belle Dame sans Merci”; RUBBRA: Three Psalms, Op. 61; JACOBSON: “Song of Songs”; PARRY: “Love is a bable,” Op. 152, No. 3 – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto/ Frederick Stone, Gerald Moore, and Bruno Walter, piano – SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 264, 79:30 (6/23/17) [Distr. by Naxos] *****: The restoration of long-buried Kathleen Ferrier archives warrants our unconditional praise and support. Contralto Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953) has long achieved legendary, cult status with lovers of vocal music and simultaneously heroic personalities. The Carlisle Festival of 1937 marks her emergence as a vocal artist of consequence, and in 1939 Ferrier made her first radio broadcast. Wartime Britain and a 1942 move to London offered Ferrier the chance to join CEMA, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, and the association led to work with Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir John Barbirolli, and Benjamin Britten. Fate granted Ferried a mere ten years of active musical service on a major stage, but her impact on music still resounds. The former record company, Arabesque, had a disc, “A Voice is a Person,” that celebrated […]
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