For those of you that will happily sit down for an hour and a half of Schubert's piano music I offer this assemblage admittedly not in the highest of hi-fi. Having processed several piano/orchestral works recently I found that my collection had three of the pianists playing Schubert pieces so here they are strung together in a sort of "Recital".
The programme is :
1. Artur Schnabel: Moment Musicaux, Op. 90 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A flat major, No.3 in F minor,
No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in F minor and No.6 in A flat major
2. Lili Kraus: Sonata in A minor Op.(posth)143 (D.784)
3. EdwinFischer: Impromptus, Op.90 Nos 2 in E flat major and 3 in G major ,
Opus 142 No.3 in B flat major
4. Artur Schnabel: Sonata in A major (D.959)
As regards the quality, the Moments and Impromptu have the odd blemish as befits very popular recordings of their day. However the two sonatas have been played a lot less and have come up very well ( I hope you will think). The Fischer is playing as I write, pretty close to LP quality I would say.
The A minor Sonata is a dour affair and Tom Service can give you his insight into it here
which includes a link to the opening page of the score. I had a listen to a couple of youtube efforts and found that the curse of modern piano playing, (over-)pedalling, had ruined them for me. You can hear what I mean here
and can compare with the less muddy playing of Lili Kraus especially in bars 27 to 32 approx.
The A major Sonata is an amazing work. High points for me are the chromatic nature of much of it, the way the repeated first melody of the slow movement is transformed by altering the supporting chords with a pedal bass note, the dancing chords of the Scherzo and the contrasting sections of the last movement which sort of stutters to an end. There is an interesting section at the end of the first movement where there are a series of fragments are linked by held notes and just before the end the penultimate phrase embodies a rise of a semitone but the following phrase subsides as if completely knackered. This recording came in an Album with those marvellous analytical notes. The trouble is that the excerpts from the score only show how Schnabel, like so many great interpeters, ignores some of the markings that the pedantic pianist (?moi?) thinks ought to be observed. I'll not bore you with details.
If you decide to give this music a go at
you may note the presence of two more major Schubert works, the "Trout" quintet with Schnabel and the "Great" C major symphony. Also recently mentioned in discussions- Brahms 3.
P.S. I hope this doesn't take too long to load and that you can start listening to the Moments Musicaux almost immediately. Oops!!, the screen has switched to very small print on this computer. I'll have to go and check it elsewhere. The "Recital" is the lowest of the entries!!. Well, its come up fine on two other computers so panic over.
The programme is :
1. Artur Schnabel: Moment Musicaux, Op. 90 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A flat major, No.3 in F minor,
No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in F minor and No.6 in A flat major
2. Lili Kraus: Sonata in A minor Op.(posth)143 (D.784)
3. EdwinFischer: Impromptus, Op.90 Nos 2 in E flat major and 3 in G major ,
Opus 142 No.3 in B flat major
4. Artur Schnabel: Sonata in A major (D.959)
As regards the quality, the Moments and Impromptu have the odd blemish as befits very popular recordings of their day. However the two sonatas have been played a lot less and have come up very well ( I hope you will think). The Fischer is playing as I write, pretty close to LP quality I would say.
The A minor Sonata is a dour affair and Tom Service can give you his insight into it here
which includes a link to the opening page of the score. I had a listen to a couple of youtube efforts and found that the curse of modern piano playing, (over-)pedalling, had ruined them for me. You can hear what I mean here
and can compare with the less muddy playing of Lili Kraus especially in bars 27 to 32 approx.
The A major Sonata is an amazing work. High points for me are the chromatic nature of much of it, the way the repeated first melody of the slow movement is transformed by altering the supporting chords with a pedal bass note, the dancing chords of the Scherzo and the contrasting sections of the last movement which sort of stutters to an end. There is an interesting section at the end of the first movement where there are a series of fragments are linked by held notes and just before the end the penultimate phrase embodies a rise of a semitone but the following phrase subsides as if completely knackered. This recording came in an Album with those marvellous analytical notes. The trouble is that the excerpts from the score only show how Schnabel, like so many great interpeters, ignores some of the markings that the pedantic pianist (?moi?) thinks ought to be observed. I'll not bore you with details.
If you decide to give this music a go at
you may note the presence of two more major Schubert works, the "Trout" quintet with Schnabel and the "Great" C major symphony. Also recently mentioned in discussions- Brahms 3.
P.S. I hope this doesn't take too long to load and that you can start listening to the Moments Musicaux almost immediately. Oops!!, the screen has switched to very small print on this computer. I'll have to go and check it elsewhere. The "Recital" is the lowest of the entries!!. Well, its come up fine on two other computers so panic over.
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