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Schubert : Octuor - Berwald : Grand Septuor
Anima Eterna
Classical - Released April 5, 2019 | Alpha Classics
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This recording is Anima’s very first to be completely devoted to instrumental ensemble music. A group of musicians headed by violinist Jakob Lehmann breathes new life into two 19th-century masterpieces. Schubert's Octet in F is a crown jewel from the repertoire, taking its cue from Beethoven’s celebrated Septet yet at the same time paving the way toward the "Grosse Sinfonie". Roughly 20 years after its iconic recording of the complete Schubert symphonies, Anima brings its signature approach to the composer’s chamber music to explore it with the insights and “language skills” developed back then and from thereon. In contrast to Schubert, Franz Berwald has been largely forgotten – undeservedly, as this gifted Swede left behind an oeuvre that is both surprisingly modern and delightfully original. Performed on period instruments, using authoritative sources and contemporary playing techniques, these brilliant pages of large ensemble music are now ready to be rediscovered and enjoyed once again. © Alpha Classics
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Schubert: Chamber Works
Christian Tetzlaff
Chamber Music - Released February 3, 2023 | Ondine
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There is an abundance of recordings of Schubert's two piano trios and of most of the other chamber pieces on this double album; one of them is even by the trio of players heard here, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, and pianist Lars Vogt, but this one was made in the last year and a half of Vogt's life. He had not yet been diagnosed with the cancer that killed him in 2022, but he spoke of this as potentially one of his last recordings. Vogt seemed to be rushing to record as much as he could before his death, sometimes disregarding the advice of his doctors, and several of his last releases were very strong. This one is extraordinary. The brother-sister team of Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff are formidable chamber players, but here, they apply their skills to staying out of Vogt's way; he seems to direct the performances. They land somewhere between ecstatic and tragic. Sample the slow movement of the Piano Trio in E flat major, D. 929, which is something of a funeral march to begin with. Vogt's melody shines with transcendence. His lines in the Piano Trio in B flat major, D. 898, are soaring, shaped into a kind of momentum perhaps never before heard in this well-worn piece. There are several shorter pieces that are beautifully done, including a take on the comparatively rarer Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D. 821, from Tanja Tetzlaff and Vogt. The main attraction is the pair of piano trios, and it is a bit sobering to ponder whether one must be staring death in the face to play like this.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Schubert: Piano Sonata, D. 959 - Moments musicaux D. 780
Adam Laloum
Solo Piano - Released January 19, 2024 | harmonia mundi
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Adam Laloum has offered low-key Schubert in the past, and it has gone against the current grain of finding big Beethovenian drama in Schubert. Here, in the Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959, he shifts gears a bit. His first movement involves flexible tempos and a good deal of general instability. Then he settles down, resulting in a first-movement-heavy treatment of the sonata. It is unusual and probably fulfills the goal of standing out from the large crowd of recordings of this late Schubert work. Perhaps stronger are the six Moments Musicaux, where Laloum's perfect control results in crystalline miniatures that truly entrance the listener if external thoughts are set aside. Sample the Allegro, D. 780, No. 3, a perfect miniature. Harmonia Mundi finds idiomatic sound at the Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers but mikes Laloum too closely, picking up a good deal of non-musical noise. Laloum is perhaps a pianist who excels in music of small dimensions, a valuable thing in a field where heroics are usually what is valued, and he produces an excellent example here.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Schubert : Symphonies 1-8
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Classical - Released March 11, 2016 | Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
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Schubert : Sonatas & Impromptus
András Schiff
Solo Piano - Released April 12, 2019 | ECM New Series
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For a truly great interpretation it’s not enough just to play a historical instrument, the playing also has to be up to scratch. This recording released by the world-renowned label ECM showcases a pianist of the highest calibre playing the wonderful Viennese Brodmann piano. András Schiff captures the convergence of thought and sound remarkably well and seldom before have we been given so much insight into Schubert’s innermost thoughts. The softness and the unmistakable legato that the pianist produces on this Viennese instrument give the Sonatas D. 958 and D. 959 an indescribable feeling of nostalgia. But Schubert’s inward revolt was growing and András Schiff leads us steadily to the edge of the abyss. The crystalline sounds of the Scherzo in the Sonata D. 959 are as enchanting as the sound of ancient harpists who were so often depicted by German Romantics. This exploration into sound is also marvellous in the Impromptus D. 899 and the 3 Klavierstücke D. 946 or “Three Piano Pieces”, which have a very expressive counterpoint that differ from the unfathomable depth of the sonatas. This album is a revelation into a whole new world of sound that is unveiled as András Schiff’s fingers touch the keys. Inspiring. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Schubert - Meta
Claire Huangci
Classical - Released October 20, 2023 | Berlin Classics
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Schubert: The Last Quartets
Aviv Quartet
Quartets - Released November 19, 2021 | Aparté
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Schubert’s last two quartets, composed during the final years of his life, reveal the impressive mastery he achieved, despite the knowledge that he was dying. The four movements of the "Death and the Maiden” Quartet, all in minor keys, and the tumultuous, quasi-orchestral fifteenth Quartet, an important stage on “the way to the grand symphony”, bear witness to the composer’s struggle against illness and death. The Quatuor Aviv brilliantly illuminates the elegiac and tragic melodies in which Schubert wrapped his torments. © Aparté
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Schubert : Fantasie in F Minor & Other Piano Duets
Andreas Staier
Chamber Music - Released March 17, 2017 | harmonia mundi
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Quintessence Schubert: Complete Symphonies, Rosamunde
Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released October 1, 2019 | Brilliant Classics
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Lebensmuth
Signum Quartett
Quartets - Released May 19, 2023 | PentaTone
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This is (apparently) the last in a series of releases from the Signum Quartett combining string quartets by the composer with arrangements of Schubert songs by the group's violist, Xandi van Dijk. That idea is unusual nowadays but wouldn't have been in Schubert's day. The idea is to put a personal flavor to Schubert's music, and quiet, clear recording ambiance of the Sendesaal Bremen contributes nicely to the effect. Here, the group's aim is right on the surface, for the album contains Schubert's first string quartet and his last one. Each seems to be on the verge of new breakthroughs. The String Quartet in G major, D. 18, written when Schubert was no more than 14, is an odd work, with each of its four movements in different keys. The movements may have been written at different times, but even the act of calling it a string quartet was an ambitious one. That work is nicely integrated with the songs by the group, which sets a quiet chamber atmosphere consistent with everything we know about the way Schubert's music was performed during his own lifetime. The String Quartet in G major, D. 887, is something else again, a large work stretching the boundaries of the genre as it was known. It was Schubert's last work in the genre. Yet even this fits with the general idea of the album; at the end of his life, with death a definite presence, he was striving toward new dimensions for the string quartet, just as he had at the beginning. The work stands out sharply from the others on the album and is played in a much more full-blooded way, but this is really the idea on a release that plunges the listener into Schubert's own life.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Schubert: Impromptus, D. 935; Pieces, D. 946; Variations, D. 576
Steven Osborne
Classical - Released September 25, 2015 | Hyperion
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Ravel: Ma Mère l'Oye, Tombeau de Couperin, Shéhérazade
Les Siècles
Symphonic Music - Released April 13, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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Recording Ravel's music on period instruments is the kind of thing that might raise a smile... until you realise just how much the production of instruments has changed in less than a hundred years: it's the return of catgut strings, skin drum heads, the French basson (and not the German system bassoon which is used across all the world's orchestras today), shaper tips, trumpets and trombones of French manufacture. At the head of his orchestra Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth gives a new, orthodox, historically-informed version of Ma Mère l’oye (complete ballet), the Tombeau de Couperin and Shéhérazade, the long-neglected "ouverture de féérie" [Fairy Overture] which is pure Ravel. This return to the roots is clearly easier and more straightforwardly authentic for this period of music history, because, unlike earlier works, we possess recordings which date back to the 1920s, and even earlier, which can tell us about the style, the colours, the phrasing and the tempo. But it isn't enough just to have all this historical information to hand to make something interesting. What makes this record thrilling is that all the musicians in the Siècles are excellent, and François-Xavier Roth is a talented artist himself, who knows this music inside out. At which point, his complete recording of Stravinsky's Firebird has already struck us with its quality. This rediscovery of Ravel resounds with clarity and finesse; it is a feast of well-defined timbres which cuts against the "beautiful sound" which prevails in orchestras around the world today. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Bartók : Violin Concerto No. 1 - Enescu : Octet
Vilde Frang
Violin Concertos - Released August 10, 2018 | Warner Classics
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As a concerto soloist and chamber musician, Vilde Frang explores what might be considered public and private aspects of her art, though in both pursuits, her expressive and deeply internalized playing belies any simplistic division between the two. In this 2018 Warner Classics release of Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 and George Enescu's Octet for strings in C major, Op. 7, Frang meets all expectations of a virtuoso soloist in the former work and takes a more collaborative approach in the latter, yet between them there is an overlapping of musical aims. Introspection is the dominant mood in the first movement of Bartók's youthful concerto, and Frang maintains a controlled lyricism that is both melancholy and ardent, only to be dispelled by the brusque second movement, which calls for flashiness and extroversion. However, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is held in check by conductor Mikko Franck, so Frang's moody solos are never overwhelmed by the accompaniment, which sometimes is quite loud. The string octet in Enescu's work is surprisingly full-sounding and resembles a string orchestra in its volume and richness, though Frang's distinctive sound is never lost in the mix. Yet for all the rustic hubbub of this energetic music, Frang conveys a pensiveness in the intimate third movement that reminds the listener that this is still chamber music, not a concerto. Warner's recorded sound seems a bit manipulated to even out the wide dynamics in the Bartók and the booming acoustics in the Enescu, which contribute to the octet's unnaturally big sound.© TiVo
Schubert + Schoenberg
Can Çakmur
Classical - Released May 5, 2023 | BIS
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Wanderer Without Words
Juliette Journaux
Classical - Released September 29, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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Schubert: Piano Trios Op.99 & 100
Trio Wanderer
Classical - Released January 31, 2008 | harmonia mundi
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Schubert: Impromptus, D.935 & Piano Sonata, D.960
Dasol Kim
Solo Piano - Released September 8, 2023 | Aparté
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Honegger: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Pacific 231, Mouvement symphonique No. 3
Serge Baudo, Czech Philharmonic
Classical - Released January 1, 1991 | Supraphon a.s.
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d'Indy: Jour d'été à la montagne, La Forêt enchantée & Souvenirs
Rumon Gamba
Symphonies - Released April 1, 2008 | Chandos
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One often reads that Vincent d'Indy was an influential teacher who left a mark in the careers of composers as diverse as Albert Roussel, Erik Satie, Isaac Albéniz, Joseph Canteloube, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Honegger, to name just a few. Yet his own music has not thrived as well as his students' works, and recordings have been rather spotty for a composer of his reputation. To remedy this, Chandos has initiated a series of d'Indy's orchestral works, and this first volume features three scarce offerings -- Jour d'été à la montagne, Op. 61; La Forêt enchantée, Op. 8; and Souvenirs, Op. 62 -- in sympathetic performances by Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. D'Indy's style was in part an outgrowth of Wagnerism, as channeled through César Franck, so the music in these tone poems has a rich, Romantic feeling that clearly derives from those sources. It's possible, too, to hear a little of Debussy's influence in Jour d'été à la montagne and Souvenirs, and the fairy tale appeal of La Forêt enchantée seems traceable to Weber and Berlioz, so there's a lot more to d'Indy's stylistic range than is usually supposed. But to hear in them only these influences is to miss much of d'Indy's originality, especially his impressionistic orchestration and his atmospheric use of melody and unusual harmonies. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra delivers these scores with radiant warmth and shimmering colors, and Gamba inspires the ensemble to play with delicacy and tenderness, emphasizing the magical qualities of these picturesque works. The sound of these recordings is a bit hazy and soft-edged, and the performances have a dreamy ambience due to resonant acoustics and the comparative lack of sharp attacks.© TiVo
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Schubert
Khatia Buniatishvili
Solo Piano - Released March 15, 2019 | Sony Classical
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Recordings of Schubert's swan song in the piano sonata genre, the Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960, are abundant, and Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili deserves credit for trying something well out of the mainstream. This said, your reaction to the album may correspond to your general orientation toward iconoclasm. Buniatishvili's approach has the virtue of being coherent: she plays Schubert in a Lisztian way, and to underscore this she wraps up the program with Liszt's transcription of the famed song Ständchen, from the Schwanengesang cycle, D. 957. The four Impromptus of Op. 90 strike a nice balance between pianistic freedom and the intimate dimensions of these pieces; sample the final A flat major piece to hear the strongest argument for what Buniatishvili is doing here. She has a good deal of Lisztian charisma and a way of making you listen to what she's doing. The B flat major sonata you may find less satisfying. The opening movement is quite deliberate, with lots of tempo rubato, large dynamic contrasts, and pregnant slowdowns, with an enormous and not fully explicable full stop before the recapitulation begins. Other pianists (Sviatoslav Richter comes to mind) have approached the work this way, but perhaps nobody has taken the slow movement as slowly as Buniatishvili does: she takes more than 14 minutes with it, where most pianists take nine or ten. The last two movements are more conventional, and they can't quite cash the checks that the enormous first two movements are writing. This is a case where your mileage (kilometers?) may definitely vary, but where the artist definitely hasn't made safe choices.© TiVo
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