Schubert

[Guest]

There is a very interesting interview in The Guardian today about Paul Lewis, the pianist, and why we should all listen to Schubert. As someone who has never listened to Schubert I wonder if you would agree with his reasoning and if so, which pieces in particular?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/09/paul-lewis-piano-schubert-interview

Edit: If I have put this on the wrong Board can frenchie move it?

[Chris Newman]

Hi, Anna,
The Observer interview with Paul Lewis is indded fascinating. I first came to Schubert with a very young Colin Davis conducting the delightful Fifth Symphony at my local theatre. It is young, fresh and very Mozartian. The next day I carried a little bag of saved pocket money to my local record store. Sadly Colin Davis had not recorded it, so I settled for Thomas Beecham who also played Symphonies Three and Six with the RPO. I still love that EMI recording. Soon afterwards I heard a very young Bob Tear sing Die Schone Mullerin and was soon singing that myself along with a Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau LP. Gradually, other works crept into my ear. The ninth symphony: I have three different recordings each of Boult and Mackerras. Such Beethovenian grandeur with foretastes of the late romantics: Mahler, Elgar, Bruckner.

Schubert is at his most characteristic when a touch of melancholy creeps into his music which is wonderful, played on my Walkman or MP3 when taking long walks in forests, sea cliffs or the downland around where I live. There is often a distinctive tread of footsteps running through his music which suits these walks so well. For Christmas I was given a complete set of DVDs of the TV series Waiting for God the theme music of which is the vivacious finale of The Trout Quintet which quotes the famous song. I have it gloriously performed by Andras Schiff and the Hagen Quartet who are heavenly and available on that label named by the radio station we never mention....shhh.... CFM. But it is one of their bargains.

Great singers of lieder? So many. I love old ones like Gerhardt Husch but you cannot go wrong with Janet Baker, Brigitte Fassbaender, Felicity Lott, Sarah Walker or a gem of a recording on a double CD on CfP with Margaret Price. Amongst the men D F-D, Christian Gerhaher, Christoph Priegarden, Fritz Wunderlich are singers who regularly hit my G-spot. In the case of D F-D I should go for earlier recordings (before the late sixties) as he does become mannered and shouts a bit later in his career.

For piano music I should go for good recordings at bargain price before diving into the pricier ones. There are good Jeno Jando (Naxos) and Alfred Brendel (Regis) recordings available of Moments Musicaux: a super starting point. If you like them you can explore deeper performances by Hough, Peter Katin, Lewis, Richter, Uchida and so on and then the wondrous piano sonatas.

That should be plenty to start with. Choose your favourite type: piano, symphony or lieder and take it from there. I hope that is a little help.

bws
Chris.

[Anna]

Thank you Chris,

I cannot abide Lieder in any shape nor form. All those songs about defunct infants is so depressing plus I don't speak German. Being more of a Symphony girl meself, I think that would be the direction for me to look. Confession time, I only have The Trout/Rosamunde.

[EdgeleyRob]

Anna try these for starters -

http://www.classicalcdguide.com/composers/schubert.htm (except for Winterreise of course) and I am sure you will soon be hooked .

D887 is my favourite of all the string quartet repertoire and the octet is an absolute masterpiece.

I have the complete piano sonatas on DG / Wilhelm Kempff and the symphonies COE/Abbado also on DG both of which I can recommend.

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

If you don't mind the depression, but are up for being moved in your own language, here is Harry Plunket Greene singing the last song in The Winter Journey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW04f0olXUY

[Richard Tarleton]

There is a very interesting interview in The Guardian today about Paul Lewis, the pianist, and why we should all listen to Schubert.

Hi Anna - the core of Paul Lewis's (a pianist I've admired and followed closely since seeing him in the Taliesin Theatre about 15 years ago ) interview is this bit: "And with his sonata in B flat...Schubert writes something that comes from another planet. I'm not a religious person at all, but it is something beyond…"

This is it, for me. There are moments of transcendence in Schubert's music which you will find in few other places - Beethoven's late quartets (esp. Op 131 and 132), Mozart passim, Bach... it's to do with what Kant and Schopenhauer talked about as phenomenon and noumenon. Phenomenon is what we can perceive with our senses, noumenon is that which we can't, and therefore don't know what it is, but every so often something gives us a hint that it might be there. Schubert's music twitches the curtain aside.

I'm thinking of moments like the slow movement of the string quintet, the second movement of the piano sonata D960, the song "Nacht und Traume", certain passages in the impromptus...I don't think you will necessarily find these moments in the symphonies, except possibly the 9th, which looks forward to Bruckner - though the adagio of no. 5 is close, I chose it for the intro music for the (secular) funeral of a much-loved relative.

Hope this helps!

[Cellini]

There is a very interesting interview in The Guardian today about Paul Lewis, the pianist, and why we should all listen to Schubert. As someone who has never listened to Schubert I wonder if you would agree with his reasoning and if so, which pieces in particular?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/09/paul-lewis-piano-schubert-interview

Edit: If I have put this on the wrong Board can frenchie move it?

I must put in a good word for Schubert. Listen to the last great pno sonata in B flat. (Plus all the late sonatas and piano duets)

String quintet in C major.

String quartets: A minor Rosamunde, Death and the Maiden, the last great G major quartet etc

The pno trios.

Violin and piano sonatas and duos.

The Trout Quintet.

That's just for starters!!! His genius had no limits, and he starts to sound like late Beethoven at times.

[french frank]

As others have said, the last sonatas: D 958, D 959 and D960. Just listen and listen, in the quiet, with the lights low ...

[Pianorak]

Not sure I would recommend low lights and quiet for D959 - especially if Stephen Kovacevich lets rip!!

[french frank]

Not sure I would recommend low lights and quiet for D959 - especially if Stephen Kovacevich lets rip!!

I didn't mean they were peaceful pieces but they need full concentration!

[Mandryka]

I always feel I should like Schubert more than I do. I own quite a lot of his music, but only occasionally feel moved to listent to it - though, when I do, it's invariably rewarding.

I prefer the last two symphonies. The 9th is at its best in Furtwangler's BPO recording from the early 50s.

Alternatively, Anna may want to sample the musical Lilac Time, which gives (English) lyrics to many of Shubert's most famous melodies.

[rauschwerk]

...which pieces in particular?

Some of Schubert's greatest music was written for piano duet. A recent recording by Lewis and Steven Osborne contains the best known of those pieces and some which are less well known. My favourite is the Allegro in A minor, D947.

[BBMmk2]

Try the James Levine, yegeny Kissin recording, Anna!! Has the Grand Duo on it!! Fantastic(although, perhaps in this recording, slightly cheating, on seperate pianos!!

[Donnie Essen]

Kick-ass! I've been digging some Schubert lately. I picked up the late string quartets done by The Lindsays, and I've been luxuriating hard in that during the evening-times last week. Comes in a real cheap packaging. Bright pink cardboard slip-cases, looks kinda like my first girlfriend's panties. Ain't no two-bit piece o' meat on the inside though. This stuff is of a rare and awesome beauty. I tell ya, this is quite the revelation for ol' Donnie, and has moved and excited me more than most others I've found.

I'm not one to pepper my words with emoticons, but the occasion warrants it. So, see here - that little guy - that's me, that's ol' Donnie when first hearing the Schubert.



I'll be listening and exploring for some months yet. I got a symphony set from the library, which is kinda okay, but I need to listen more. I dunno if the string quartets just hit harder and are more immediate, or if they're considered the equals of the symponies or not, or perhaps I'm a string quartet kinda guy. Anyway, I've heard only a bit of the 'Winterriese', that I got off a torrent for a try-out, but I've ordered the D-F-D 'song-cycles' set. I need to hear me the Trout.

[Anna]

Lots of suggestions there, thanks. I'm quite enjoying listening to various sound clips on Amazon. As to the symphonies 5/8/9 I see the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (of which I am a big fan) have recorded them conducted by Charles Mackerras (again, big fan of his) so that seems quite tempting. The D958 etc are available very cheaply by Brendel