Schubert, Piano Trio in Eb, D929

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

To get started:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_No._2_(Schubert)

This is a favourite work of mine, but I only have two recordings of it - van Immerseel, Beths, & Bylsma on SONY, and the Israel Pno 3o on BRILLIANT (originally CRD).

[richardfinegold]

Is this the old Op.100? I’ve never understood the various ways of cataloging Schubert works.
My only recordingsi are the Beaux Arts and Suk Trios which are both so fine that I’ve never felt the need to explore further.
I have heard it live a few times with ad hot summer music festival players, the last time in Newport, Rhode Island about 2 years ago. Pace Ferney, this piece is irresistible.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not "pace", rfg - we're in complete agreement.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Is this the old Op.100? I’ve never understood the various ways of cataloging Schubert works.

Today the Deutsch numbers have pretty much seen off the very random opus-numbers. Deutsch's catalogue is on the same model as Kochel's for Mozart: trying to list and number all the works in order of composition. Wiki tells us
"Only a small minority of Schubert's works were published in his lifetime. Not all published works were allocated opus numbers, and the sequence of opus numbers that were allocated bore little relationship to the order in which the works were either composed or published. For example, the first of his works to be published, the song "Die Forelle", was given the opus number 32.After Schubert's death in 1828, a number of his works were published with posthumous opus numbers. This practice was discontinued after the publication of Op. 173, in 1867."

[jayne lee wilson]

HIPPS (Period Instrument): La Gaia Scienza, C/w D.28 Sonata. Winter & Winter CD.
Moderne...Trio Wanderer c/w D898, D897 Notturno, D28 Sonata. Harmonia Mundi CDs.

Once I knew - and loved - the Gaia Scienza, I tended not to look for others....(same story with their D898...); I think for any sensitive listener, after encountering this wonderful, sparsely-recorded group in - Brahms, Schumann, Schubert - nothing is ever quite the same again...

DD (G., 12/97) found the Gaia Scienza "far more gripping" than the Beths/Bylsma/Immerseel, contrasting their "startling" less blended sonorities with the more euphonious approach of the latter. RW in the same issue was fairly critical of both sound and performance on the Sony recording too: "close, resonant recording....pervasive rhythmic squareness...smoothed-out accents and dynamic contrasts..." etc... .

The con moto is extraordinary isn't it? One of the Great Romantic Quests that Schubert so often and so hauntingly set out upon....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is this the old Op.100?

As shown in this YouTube video (did somebody mention Trio Wanderer?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oV5DyJeVyg

[MickyD]

HIPPS (Period Instrument): La Gaia Scienza, C/w D.28 Sonata. Winter & Winter CD.
Moderne...Trio Wanderer c/w D898, D897 Notturno, D28 Sonata. Harmonia Mundi CDs.

Once I knew - and loved - the Gaia Scienza, I tended not to look for others....(same story with their D898...); I think for any sensitive listener, after encountering this wonderful, sparsely-recorded group in - Brahms, Schumann, Schubert - nothing is ever quite the same again...

DD (G., 12/97) found the Gaia Scienza "far more gripping" than the Beths/Bylsma/Immerseel, contrasting their "startling" less blended sonorities with the more euphonious approach of the latter. RW in the same issue was fairly critical of both sound and performance on the Sony recording too: "close, resonant recording....pervasive rhythmic squareness...smoothed-out accents and dynamic contrasts..." etc... .

The con moto is extraordinary isn't it? One of the Great Romantic Quests that Schubert so often and so hauntingly set out upon....

How can you have a 'close, resonant' recording?

[Barbirollians]

Florestan Trio is my excellent modern version but I remain utterly smitten by the Serkin and Busch from the1930s.

[Richard Barrett]

How can you have a 'close, resonant' recording?

I imagine what's meant here is that the resonance is a feature of the performing space, whereas the closeness is a matter of microphone placement.

[jayne lee wilson]

How can you have a 'close, resonant' recording?

Just trying this on Qobuz.... that is exactly how it sounds. As if the tonmeister tries their best to squeeze a little space out of a confining place...(or maybe the other way around ).
You note the resonance quickly (most obvious on piano) - but especially at climaxes, it seems to stop too quickly.... no, it isn't desperately unpleasant (the balance & clarity is generally OK) but could seem a bit "shouty" on some systems... (subjectively, hard to maintain much interest in the readings though, for the reasons aforesummarised....)

Possible Alternatives.....
Boxy, bathroomy....

As I've been finding in the Eterna Brugge/Immerseel Mozart Concerti, Immerseel has many musical merits as conductor (I love his Debussy and the Strauss Waltzes) but, whilst enjoyable as part of the bigger picture, is perhaps not the most distinctive or imaginative of pianists....

BTW - La Gaia Scienza are well-represented on Qobuz, so the Schubert is all there, awaiting your inspection....

[Bryn]

BTW - La Gaia Scienza are well-represented on Qobuz, so the Schubert is all there, awaiting your inspection....

Yes, you get a choice of the two separate albums or the double album holding the content of each.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I remain utterly smitten by the Serkin and Busch from the1930s.

Err - oh, yes: in the Warner Boxed set of Busch recordings. I have that, too.

Also YouTubable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXrXHKZKQn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwZp6JU9CFo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfqYAsXkU8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agNsDgADn1Q

[Edgy 2]

I have the Beaux Arts (1960s not 80s) and the Stuttgart Trio on Naxos.
The Stuttgart is excellent and is my favourite although there is a glitch about 3 mins into the 2nd movement where a screeching noise drowns about a couple of seconds of the music.
I've sort of got used to it over the years so doesn't spoil my listening.
The piano playing is fabulous,but then Monika Leonhard was a pupil of Brendel.
I have heard the Kungsbacka Trio on Naxos which reinstates some cuts in the finale that Schubert made for the published version.

[visualnickmos]

I have the Beaux Arts (1960s not 80s) and the Stuttgart Trio on Naxos.
The Stuttgart is excellent and is my favourite although there is a glitch about 3 mins into the 2nd movement where a screeching noise drowns about a couple of seconds of the music.
I've sort of got used to it over the years so doesn't spoil my listening.
The piano playing is fabulous,but then Monika Leonhard was a pupil of Brendel.
I have heard the Kungsbacka Trio on Naxos which reinstates some cuts in the finale that Schubert made for the published version.

I have the Beaux Arts too, but I wasn't aware they had recoreded it again in the 1980s. I wonder how the two compare?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have the Beaux Arts too, but I wasn't aware they had recoreded it again in the 1980s. I wonder how the two compare?

Time-wise, the movements are

'60s: 12' 42"; 8' 57"; 6' 54"; 12' 45"
'80s: 12' 41"; 9' 41"; 6' 44"; 14' 19"

Edgey mentions the original version of the finale, which adds around five or six minutes of Music to the more familiar version (depending on the speed taken, of course). Both the Trio Italiano and the Golub/Kaplan/Carr Trio include both versions of the Finale on their recordings - and the Trio Alba, like the Kungsbackas, replace the familiar version with the original - as, I suspect, do the Rafael, Vitruvi, and Vienna Mozart Trios, judging by the durations on their recordings. (The Rafael Trio has the longest performance I can find: 17'22"; 9' 21"; 7' 10"; 22' 54": that's over ten minutes longer than the Beaux Arts in the '60s just for the Finale! - I think the shortest on record is the Serkin/Busch [10' 52"; 10' 07"; 4' 40"; 13' 01" - but I think that is more to do with 78 rpm accommodation of repeats. And one of the longest performances of the Slow Movements on record.)

Clock timings aren't everything - performances can create their own correct tempi. Even so - that Rafael recording (I haven't heard it, so this is very possibly a grotesque disservice to them) at 57 minutes seems a bit ... "leisurely" !