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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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Diapason d'or -
Choc de Classica -
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
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Le temps perdu
Imogen Cooper
Classical - Released September 3, 2021 | Chandos
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Borrowing from the title of Proust’s great novel, the latest recital by Imogen Cooper features a collection of pieces that she learnt as a teenager in Paris, or in her twenties working with Alfred Brendel in Vienna, but none of which she has performed on the concert platform, or really played at all in the intervening years. Cooper studied in Paris from 1961 to 1967 with Jacques Février (who had known Ravel well), Yvonne Lefébure (who had known Alfred Cortot), and Germaine Mounier. She started to wonder about the messages from her teachers she would find on her scores, and about the nature of memory. She was also interested to see if the repertoire she has acquired since she learnt these pieces would change her view, or shed new light on them. This highly personal recital is an exemplar of Imogen Cooper’s outstanding pianism and musicianship. © Chandos
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Schubert: Piano à quatre mains
Claire Désert
Classical - Released October 29, 2015 | Mirare
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Legendary Schubert Recordings - Wilhelm Kempff
Wilhelm Kempff
Classical - Released June 14, 2023 | UME - Global Clearing House
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Goldberg Variations
Trevor Pinnock
Classical - Released October 9, 2020 | Linn Records
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Composer Józef Koffler was the first Polish champion of Schoenberg's 12-tone system and a modernist whose work, based on this fascinating transcription of Bach's Goldberg Variations for harpsichord, BWV 988, is likely to be worth further investigation. He ran afoul of Stalin's Soviet Union and then, worse, of the Germans when they took over Poland, and he disappeared in the Holocaust. The Goldberg arrangement, composed in 1938, was perhaps intended as something palatable to Soviet conservatives, but it is in no way done by the numbers. For one thing, when Koffler composed the work, the Goldberg Variations were quite new in the public consciousness; they had received their first recording, from harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, just five years earlier. Koffler's version, for a small orchestra of strings and winds, was forgotten and was premiered only in 2019, by many of the forces on this recording: it is extremely artfully done. Koffler deploys his ensemble, generally speaking, in three different ways: with the strings taking Bach's melody line, with wind-and-strings atomization of the melody, and with counterpoint mainly in the winds. He is inspired by the broadly tripartite structure of the variations, with canons mostly making up every third variation, but he departs from this where Bach does, and the entire set retains the unity and growth of the original, with complexity and expressivity growing as if inevitably as the music proceeds. The work would make an ideal complement in concert to Anton Webern's arrangement of the fugue from Bach's Musical Offering, BWV 1079. Historical performance veteran Trevor Pinnock leads a mixed ensemble of young musicians, consisting of members of the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble and students at the Glenn Gould School in Canada, and they play with precision and a fine edge. The Linn label delivers superbly detailed sound from the Britten Studio in Snape Maltings, UK, and the album graphics, showing a Chagall-like shtetl painting by the similarly doomed artist Chara Kowalska, are haunting. A unique release, fully deserving of the commercial success it has received.© TiVo
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Schubert: Lieder with Orchestra
Munich Radio Orchestra
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | BR-Klassik
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One might react to this album with initial annoyance and ask whether it is really necessary to hear orchestrated versions of Schubert's supremely pianistic songs. It may come as a surprise, then, to find that most of these Lieder with Orchestra were arranged by great composers. They include Benjamin Britten, Jacques Offenbach, and Max Reger, who took on the job because, he said, he hated to hear a piano-accompanied song on an orchestral program. Perhaps the most surprising name to find is that of Anton Webern, but his arrangements are not the minimal, pointillistic things one might expect; he wrote these arrangements as a way of studying Schubert's music, and they are quite straightforward. Indeed, it is somewhat difficult to distinguish the arrangers simply by listening to the music; Schubert's melodic lines tend to suggest distinctive solutions. Perhaps Reger's are a bit more lush than the others, although his version of Erlkönig, D. 328, is one of the few numbers here that just doesn't work (there is no way to replicate the percussive quality of the accompaniment). As for the performances as such, Benjamin Appl is clearly an important rising baritone, and he has a wonderful natural quality in Schubert. An oddball release like this might seem an unusual choice for a singer in early career, but he contributes his own notes, and he seems to have undertaken the project out of genuine enthusiasm for the material. At the very least, he has brought some intriguing pieces out of the archives and given them highly listenable performances. The Munich Radio Orchestra, under the young Oscar Jockel, is suitably restrained and keeps out of Appl's way. This release made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Debussy: Complete Works for Piano
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Classical - Released October 1, 2012 | Chandos
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Praised for his meticulous fidelity to the composer's intentions, as well as for his rich tonal palette and the warmth of his expressions, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has won many admirers for his five albums of the complete solo piano music of Claude Debussy. These recordings were produced by Chandos between 2007 and 2009, and they have now been gathered into a handsome box set; each disc is presented with its own cardboard sleeve and the original liner notes that accompanied each release. The roster of artists who have recorded Debussy's keyboard music is a long and distinguished one, though Bavouzet is easily ranked in the upper echelons, equal in stature among such luminaries as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Krystian Zimerman, Maurizio Pollini, Angela Hewitt, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Pascal Rogé. Experienced listeners will already have favorite recordings of the Préludes, Images, Estampes, and Études, as well as the perennially popular Suite bergamasque, Children's Corner, and other picturesque pieces. However, many will be won over by the consistency of Bavouzet's playing, and newcomers will find that his disciplined yet gorgeous readings are a great way to begin appreciating these charming classics. Chandos provides excellent sound that gives the piano a clear presence yet takes nothing away from Bavouzet's atmospheric colors or the radiant acoustics. Highly recommended.© TiVo
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Schumann: Études symphoniques, Op. 13 - Études sur un thème de Beethoven, WoO 31 & Geistervariationen, WoO 24
Claire Désert
Classical - Released September 10, 2021 | Mirare
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From one recording to the next, French pianist Claire Désert continues her exploration of Schumann’s piano works with a new album focussed on the variation genre. She explores the manifold, elusive moods found in the “Symphonic Studies”, the “Etudes in Variation form on a Theme of Beethoven” and the “Geistervariationen” (Ghost Variations), like a diary of the composer. From a tribute to Beethoven to the ultimate variations composed right before sinking into the Rhine, it is all Romanticism that is sung by Schumann's piano, with its breaks and ideals. © Mirare
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In Memoriam I
Pieter Wispelwey
Chamber Music - Released February 3, 2023 | Evil Penguin Classic
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The "in memoriam" in the title of this release by cellist Pieter Wispelwey and pianist Paolo Giacometti refers not to any aspect of Schubert's music but to Wispelwey himself and his recently deceased son. The music was recorded previously to this 2023 release but is not a reissue of an earlier album; the pieces by Schubert were extracted from earlier albums also featuring other composers and resequenced here. (A second In memoriam album, with Bach and Kodaly, is planned.) The Schubert pieces are arranged for cello and piano from other media, and one pleasure of the material is how well Wispelwey has accomplished his task as arranger; the challenges posed by the change in register in the opening Introduction and Variations on Trockne Blumen, K. 802, originally for flute and piano, are quite elegantly handled. The ordering of the pieces seems to embody a passage from death to life, with the variations on the grim song Trockne Blumen ("Dry Flowers") giving way to a sonata and a short rondo before the freer Fantasy in C major, D. 934, originally for violin and piano and again artfully arranged. In the performance here, the Fantasy does take on a life-affirming quality. These recordings, when they were originally made, had an unpleasantly breathy, close-up quality, and nothing seems to have been done to improve that, but they do represent a moving repurposing of earlier music-making in commemoration of a tragic event.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 - Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Maxim Emelyanychev
Symphonic Music - Released October 19, 2018 | Aparté
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R. Schumann: Complete Solo Piano Works, Vol. 3 - Variationen über den Namen Abegg, Op. 1, Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32 & Vier Märsche, Op. 76
Dana Ciocarlie
Classical - Released September 29, 2017 | La Dolce Volta
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Choc de Classica -
Choc Classica de l'année
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Schubert & Brahms: The Complete Duos (Vol. 2) - Trockne Blumen
Johannes Brahms
Chamber Music - Released November 27, 2015 | Evil Penguin Classic
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Second in a collection of six volumes devoted to Schubert and Brahms duets for cello and piano. The shrewdest on qobuz have already raised an eyebrow at the output of the first volume now know that between the two composers, there’s really only 2 Sonatas by Brahms and the sole Sonata Arpeggione by Schubert. Never mind, cellist Pieter Wispelwey and his regular accompanying pianist Paolo Giacometti have decided to do what has always been done, and consult the transcripts. Suddenly, we find ourselves at the head of several Schubertian fantasies, brought to life by the combined efforts of the duo, as well the Brahms sonatas for clarinet or viola, and some others derived from the flute-piano duet. The volume of the second program includes the First Sonata by Brahms and very virtuoso series of variations of Schubert originally designed for the flute. © SM / Qobuz
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Rachmaninov : Paganini, Corelli & Chopin Variations
Nikolai Lugansky, Sakari Oramo & City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released October 1, 2004 | Warner Classics International
For a Russian super virtuoso, Nikolai Lugansky seems to be a shy guy. That Lugansky is a Russian super virtuoso is a sure thing. His previous recordings have all stuck to the Russian super virtuoso repertoire of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev with some Chopin thrown in. And Lugansky's previous recordings have all been at their best when the repertoire is at its most super virtuosic. When the prestississimo double octaves are flashing and the fortississimo ten-finger chords are smashing, Nikolai Lugansky seems to be the super virtuosos heir to Horowitz.But when it comes to emotion, you can count Lugansky out. In this disc of super virtuoso variations by the super emotional Rachmaninov, Lugansky rips through the hundreds of thousands of notes with aplomb and panache, but when he gets to the mushy stuff, Lugansky stiffens up. In the crash and rattle of the outer variations of the Paganini Rhapsody, Lugansky is brilliant. But in the gushy Variation No. 18 -- one of the great makeout pieces of music of all time -- Lugansky turns prudish and pulls back from the climax. Because the Corelli Variations are made of sterner stuff, Lugansky's shyness is no crime. But because the Chopin Variations are as lubricious as they are lugubrious, Lugansky seems less like the heir to the super emotional Horowitz than to a prom queen in a mosh pit. Warner's sound is clean, but not clean enough, and warm, but perhaps too warm.© TiVo
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L'art d'Aldo Ciccolini (Scarlatti, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt...)
Aldo Ciccolini
Solo Piano - Released September 28, 2018 | Cascavelle
Distinctions
5 de Diapason
« The title does not lie: it is really "the art" of the Italian master who shines in this box, [...] showing the artist in a surprising form when he was already nearly eighty years old. [...] A rich complement to the sum published in 2009 by Warner. » (Translated from French – Diapason, janvier 2019 / Bertrand Boissard)
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Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
Berliner Philharmoniker
Classical - Released May 3, 1989 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Schubert : Fantasy for Piano Duet - Grand Duo
Sviatoslav Richter
Classical - Released June 20, 2000 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Tschaikowsky, Saint Saens, Ginastera
Sol Gabetta
Classical - Released July 5, 2006 | RCA Red Seal
Cellist Sol Gabetta possesses a beautifully singing tone, an evenly warm sound across the range of her instrument, precise intonation, and a large array of colors and techniques at her disposal. Yet her debut album fails to make a tremendous impact on its listeners. While sheer technique and virtuosity shouldn't win out over considerations of musical artistry, works like the Rococo Variations still require at least a little bit of sparkle and dazzle to maintain the excitement. Despite her amply beautiful sound, Gabetta's interpretation comes across as cautious and lackluster. The seven variations lack adequate distinction in tempo and character, with the third, fourth, and sixth variations being interminably slow. The Saint-Saëns concerto is slightly more vigorous in the first theme, but by the second theme the tempo once again comes almost to a standstill. Ginastera's Pampeana No. 2, heard here in a version for cello and string orchestra, is the most interesting and vivacious piece on the disc, but is still not as fiery as it should be. The orchestra accompaniment is similarly sluggish and the playing in the string section is often imprecise. While listeners will most likely enjoy Gabetta's rich sound, they may wish to look elsewhere for a more lively and varied performance of all the works heard here.© TiVo
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Johann Sebastian Bach : Variations Goldberg
Blandine Rannou
Classical - Released October 27, 2011 | Zig-Zag Territoires
Booklet
Distinctions
Pianiste Maestro -
Choc de Classica
The novelty contained in this recording goes a good deal deeper than the wacky graphics that seem to have become the norm for French Baroque music releases. French harpsichordist Blandine Rannou, playing a 1988 replica of a powerful Ruckers instrument, puts to rest, perhaps permanently, the idea that harpsichord interpretations of the towering Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, are inherently less dramatic, irregular, and expressive than those played on a modern piano. From the beginning Rannou's performance is unexpected, with the opening aria clocking in at amost seven minutes. It is as if Rannou wanted to open up a huge musical space that could contain the musical experiments on which she is about to embark. And they come fast and furious. Rannou adds heavy ornaments, uses lots of rubato all the way through, and follows one variation with another without pause, except for a few full stops. Dramatic contrasts are the order of the day. There are other very slow variations (the Adagio variation 25 gets nearly ten minutes to unfold its mysteries), but Rannou only rarely resorts to blinding speed, as opposed to ornamentational density. Instead she uses the space to shape each individual variation into a series of quasi-fantastic effects, linking the work to Bach's mighty works in semi-improvisational traditions. This is an unusual way, in the extreme, of hearing the Goldberg Variations. It pretty much disregards the work's elaborate tripartite architecture of melodic, virtuoso, and contrapuntal variations, and it requires disbelief in the (probably untrue) origin story of the variations as written for a Count Goldberg who wanted music to drift off to sleep by. For Rannou, the Goldberg Variations are a supremely public work. Not everyone will love this, but it demands to be heard, and Rannou is supported by superb sound from the Zig Zag Territoires label.© TiVo
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Quintette "La Truite" - Adagio et Rondo concertante
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Chamber Music - Released October 1, 2002 | Chandos
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Piano Music - Schumann, R. / Kabalevsky, D. / Schubert, F. / Bartok , B. (Such Stuff As Dreams - Lullaby Album for Children and Adults)
Carol Rosenberger
Classical - Released September 30, 1997 | Delos
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