Schubert Mitsuko Uchida Birmingham Town Hall 30.10.17

[Barbirollians]

I am a great admirer of Uchida and I think her Hammerklavier is probably my favourite recording of all . I am afraid that wonderfully as she played I was at odds with her performances of D575 and D845 last night . It might have been the effects of the flu jab but there was in particular in the first movement of D845 a tendency to overdo the fortissimo for my liking and these were rather unyielding performances . My view was confirmed this morning by listening to Brendel in both works .

I must admit that I left at the interval despite D850 being still to come though this was partly from realising in a slightly feverish state that the trains back to Yorkshire were not quite as I expected and that it would mean the difference between getting home at 10.30 and 1 in the morning had I stayed .

Anyone own her recordings of the Schubert sonatas ? Is this rather forceful approach reflected in them ?

Rather annoyingly I now see that Pires due in Birmingham next Monday has replaced D960 with the Four Impromptus for her programme but as I am staying with friends I won't be missing them ! Perhaps also an evening of three Schubert sonatas is just a bit indigestible at one sitting .

[BBMmk2]

Unfortunately I do not, Barbs but her Debussy is quite emplerary but from what I remember when her Schubert recordings came out, very worthy, to say the least.

[richardfinegold]

Hope you feel better. We are having an early flu season here as well.
Sunday I had pulled her recording of the Impromptus, Op 90 and 142, off the shelves after hearing the first piece played on the radio during a drive home played by another Pianist. Although I had really liked the disc when Purchased it years ago, Being my first foray into Schubert’s Piano music, now I thought it was somewhat stiff and inflexible. I had to stop playing it after a few pieces and put Brendel on as a corrective. Apparently she hasn’t relaxed much with time.
I heard her in the Beethoven Third Concerto last year, a suitably powerful performance, and I find her coiled tension interesting when she plays Mozart, but maybe she just doesn’t fit with Schubert.

[gradus]

I haven't heard her in Schubert but her Schumann Carneval on the other hand is one of the finest recordings of the piece. I heard her play the Diabelli live 3 or 4 years ago and wish she had recorded it. The Debussy studies recording is another spectacular performance. She's one of the relatively small group of pianists I would buy tickets for irrespective of the pieces programmed.

[Barbirollians]

As for the Diabelli apparently she was ill when due to record it and has rescheduled recording it but not till 2020 !

[Barbirollians]

I haven't heard her in Schubert but her Schumann Carneval on the other hand is one of the finest recordings of the piece. I heard her play the Diabelli live 3 or 4 years ago and wish she had recorded it. The Debussy studies recording is another spectacular performance. She's one of the relatively small group of pianists I would buy tickets for irrespective of the pieces programmed.

That was how I felt until Monday night . Perhaps I was just not in the right place for those three sonatas . Had She been playing one of the last three in the second half I am sure I would have stayed !

[Alison]

I was pretty disappointed with her Schubert box, constantly striving for a profundity that yet proved elusive. Her Mozart concertos in Cleveland strike me as very much in the same bracket.

[Barbirollians]

I also found those Cleveland discs disappointing compared to her cycle with Tate .

There was to me a sense of trying to make the music sound even more radical than it is . Brendel just lets it all unfold , especially in his late 1980s digital cycle . Then again I collected those avidly on cassette when they came out and that is how I got to know the Schubert sonatas .

[Barbirollians]

I also found those Cleveland discs disappointing compared to her cycle with Tate .

There was to me a sense of trying to make the music sound even more radical than it is . Brendel just lets it all unfold , especially in his late 1980s digital cycle . Then again I collected those avidly on cassette when they came out and that is how I got to know the Schubert sonatas .

I took delivery today of a cheap secondhand copy of Uchida's recordings of D575 and D845 the two sonatas from last Monday . I have only played D845 so far and it strikes me as a much more nuanced and less violent account than we had last Monday .

[waldo]

Anyone own her recordings of the Schubert sonatas ? Is this rather forceful approach reflected in them ?

I've got her Schubert boxset - 8 or 9 cds, I think. I rate it very highly and turn to it often. She's never struck me as forceful. The readings here are quite spacious and meditative, though there's vigour when needed. Clearly the fruit of long reflection, they are coherent, balanced, thoughtful interpretations. The standard criticism is that she can sometimes be a little too considered - not mannered, as such, but perhaps too calculated in places. (See how delicately I can play this bit!) I don't usually feel this, but I can see how others might. Anyway, I think it is first-rate set and hard to dislike. She does all the repeats, I believe (unlike Brendel or Kempff) so the late sonatas are rather long - might be annoying, if you aren't in the mood.

[johnb]

I have no doubt that Uchida feels the music deeply but my problem with her Schubert is that she tends to micro-manage, trying to milk the last ounce of expression rather than letting the music speak for itself. As an example, in the wonderful Andante Sostenuto from D960 I find Kempff's meditative approach (a profundity through simplicity) much more powerful and appropriate than Uchida's "expressive" rubatos.

Kempff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPo3PxCO-qU
Uchida: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHdYGnlxCu4

[waldo]

I'd certainly agree with you about Kempff, johnb. He is hard to match in all kinds of ways. Its just a pity (for me, less so for others) that the recorded sound is such a let down. It isn't bad, but I do wish it could have been a bit richer, a bit more present. (Though I mentioned this to someone a while back and they said that they had heard Kempff live and that was just how he sounded!)

[silvestrione]

Last night Uchida was at the RFH on South Bank, playing the C minor, the 'little' A major, and the great G major sonatas.

There was certainly a Beethovenian aggression in the C minor Sonata, though the slow movement had lovely moments. In the finale, she went for too much speed and intensity and a certain roughness crept in.

The little A major was not so poetic as in other hands (Myra Hess!), though the slow, middle movement held th audience spell-bound. The whirlwind last movement was again rough, with one passage seriously adrift.

The best playing of the evening came in the exposition, with repeat, of the first movement of the G major. Slower than I like, but again the whole hall spell-bound. The development section was spoilt by over-done fortissimos, coming immediately and so taking away from the sense of climax as the main theme is eventually pounded out higher up. The slow speed meant the delicate moments between the outbursts lacked that delightful Viennese lilt Brendel finds for them. And what a pity the marvellous return at the beginning of the recapitualtion did not have the same, rapt pianissimo she found first-time (as it does in the wonderful Brendel Philips analogue recording).

Again, fortes in the slow movement and 3rd movement were rather over-loud and forced. But this time the finale worked well, if just a trifle 'micro-managed', in the way alluded to above.

I was surprised to see so many young people in the audience, from late teens to forty-somethings. In Cambridge (and at Snape) it's all grey heads, nearly. Not all of them stayed, and not all of them could resist checking their phones during performance!

[Barbirollians]

Last night Uchida was at the RFH on South Bank, playing the C minor, the 'little' A major, and the great G major sonatas.

There was certainly a Beethovenian aggression in the C minor Sonata, though the slow movement had lovely moments. In the finale, she went for too much speed and intensity and a certain roughness crept in.

The little A major was not so poetic as in other hands (Myra Hess!), though the slow, middle movement held th audience spell-bound. The whirlwind last movement was again rough, with one passage seriously adrift.

The best playing of the evening came in the exposition, with repeat, of the first movement of the G major. Slower than I like, but again the whole hall spell-bound. The development section was spoilt by over-done fortissimos, coming immediately and so taking away from the sense of climax as the main theme is eventually pounded out higher up. The slow speed meant the delicate moments between the outbursts lacked that delightful Viennese lilt Brendel finds for them. And what a pity the marvellous return at the beginning of the recapitualtion did not have the same, rapt pianissimo she found first-time (as it does in the wonderful Brendel Philips analogue recording).

Again, fortes in the slow movement and 3rd movement were rather over-loud and forced. But this time the finale worked well, if just a trifle 'micro-managed', in the way alluded to above.

I was surprised to see so many young people in the audience, from late teens to forty-somethings. In Cambridge (and at Snape) it's all grey heads, nearly. Not all of them stayed, and not all of them could resist checking their phones during performance!

Sounds very similar to her performances in Birmingham .

Funnily enough I bought her recording of D575 and D845 secondhand after the concert cheaply and I much prefer her playing on the CD - perhaps occasionally sounding a little over calculated but sublime in the trio of D845 which was prosaic in Birmingham.

[pastoralguy]

5 Stars in Today's Times.