Schumann's Shoebox

Started by aquablob, April 07, 2007, 08:11:59 AM

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North Star

#320
Quote from: Gordo on March 23, 2015, 04:12:34 AM
It seems the complete series will be mandatory. What a great idea to record the concertos and the piano trios together!

I have read that gut strings will be used in this project ("The Guardian", for instance), but I'm not sure if the violin used by Mrs. Faust is gut-stringed. Do you have some information about it?
Sure sounds like PI in the samples (UK link)

E: And also in the quotation there:
QuoteThe instigators of the project, Isabelle Faust, Alexandre Melnikov and Jean-Guihen Queyras, champion their cause with a force of conviction and a choice of instruments that restore the delicate transparency and subtlety of their textures. The next release will be of the Piano Concerto and Piano Trio No. 2. 'The idea for this CD project arose during a tour on which we performed Robert Schumann s Trio Op.80. As passionate admirers of the composer, we conceived the desire to place his works for piano, violin and cello in a broader context and to illuminate them mutually in order to allow listeners to gain a deeper understanding of his music. We soon agreed to play the pieces for this recording on a historical piano and stringed instruments with gut strings, using orchestral forces to match. Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester sprang spontaneously to mind as the ideal partners for a project of this kind. Our shared journey into the magical world of this incomparable composer will remain with us as an exceptionally intense, happy, and fulfilling experience.' Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Jean-Guihen Queyras.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Wanderer

It's good to see the violin concerto getting some well-deserved attention; it's come as a topic of discussion time and again and some of us have always liked it (my perennial recommendation being Kremer/Harnoncourt, which, even after the arrival of more recent recordings, holds its own very well). I've never understood the "reputation" that supposedly follows the concerto and kudos to I.Faust for speaking against Clara Wieck/Schumann for hiding it from the world for so long.

This new recording, as already mentioned, is excellent; both Faust and the Freiburg orchestra are passionate and feisty; great phrasing, too. The period ensemble deserves special mention as is both a great collaborator to the soloist and their playing (excellent dynamic gradations) accentuates the splendid sonorities of Schumann's orchestration. I'm generally not a big enthusiast of Faust's playing, but here she is simply excellent. The performance of the piano trio No.3 is on the same high level.

Florestan

Last week Mezzo TV aired live recordings of Melnikov, Faust and Queyras playing in order the three Schumann concertos with Freiburger Barockorchester. Excellent on all accounts.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

ZauberdrachenNr.7

Greatly looking forward to hearing Faust's recording of the Schumann VC.  I have Gidon Kremer in it, which I don't much like; it is - as usual - too steely a tone for me.

San Antone

I have been lately enjoying this recording by Matthias Goerne and Vladimir Ashkenazy

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Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: sanantonio on May 18, 2015, 11:53:21 AM
I have been lately enjoying this recording by Matthias Goerne and Vladimir Ashkenazy

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I have that one, too. Great duo.


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

San Antone

Robert Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op.17



Maurizio Pollini couples this Schumann work with the Schubert Wanderer Fantasie -

"The cover shows Caspar David Friedrich's familiar The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Pollini, on the other hand, is a wanderer in a transparent ether or crystalline light, and both these legendary performances, recorded in 1973 and beautifully remastered, are of a transcendental vision and integrity. In the Schubert his magisterial, resolutely unvirtuoso approach allows everything its time and place.

Listen to his flawlessly graded triple piano approach to the central Adagio, to his rock-steady octaves at 5'23" (where Schubert's merciless demand is so often the cause of confusion) or to the way the decorations in the Adagio are spun off with such rare finesse, and you may well wonder when you've heard playing of such an unadorned, unalloyed glory. Pollini's Schumann is no less memorable. Doubting Thomases on the alert for alternating touches of imperiousness and sobriety will be disappointed, for, again, Pollini's poise is unfaltering. The opening Moderato is sempre energico, indeed, its central Etwas langsamer is so sensitively and precisely gauged that all possible criticism is silenced. The coda of the central march (that locus classicus of the wrong note) is immaculate and in what someone once called the finale's 'shifting sunset vapour' Pollini takes us gently but firmly to the shores of Elysium. Here is a record that should grace every musician's shelf."
  ~  Gramophone Music Guide, 2010.

Mandryka

Quote from: sanantonio on June 18, 2015, 12:39:42 PM
Robert Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op.17



Maurizio Pollini couples this Schumann work with the Schubert Wanderer Fantasie -

"The cover shows Caspar David Friedrich's familiar The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Pollini, on the other hand, is a wanderer in a transparent ether or crystalline light, and both these legendary performances, recorded in 1973 and beautifully remastered, are of a transcendental vision and integrity. In the Schubert his magisterial, resolutely unvirtuoso approach allows everything its time and place.

Listen to his flawlessly graded triple piano approach to the central Adagio, to his rock-steady octaves at 5'23" (where Schubert's merciless demand is so often the cause of confusion) or to the way the decorations in the Adagio are spun off with such rare finesse, and you may well wonder when you've heard playing of such an unadorned, unalloyed glory. Pollini's Schumann is no less memorable. Doubting Thomases on the alert for alternating touches of imperiousness and sobriety will be disappointed, for, again, Pollini's poise is unfaltering. The opening Moderato is sempre energico, indeed, its central Etwas langsamer is so sensitively and precisely gauged that all possible criticism is silenced. The coda of the central march (that locus classicus of the wrong note) is immaculate and in what someone once called the finale's 'shifting sunset vapour' Pollini takes us gently but firmly to the shores of Elysium. Here is a record that should grace every musician's shelf."
  ~  Gramophone Music Guide, 2010.

The Schumann fantasie was dedicated to Liszt I think, and I think the Liszt sonata was dedicated to Schumann. Both sound rather like the Wanderer Fanatasy to me.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Madiel

#328
It so happens that today I've been thinking about possible Schumann acquisitions.

I need some symphonies, and I think that now that Gardiner is available more cheaply he's going to be first option. Seems to have near universal praise.

However, I was also looking at some options for the overtures. Does anyone have a view on this Naxos disc? Or know of any other overture collections? They mostly seem to come as appendages to symphonic recordings.

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The overtures do all appear on a symphony cycle by Dausgaard on BIS, but I'm not seeing great reviews for that series.

I was also looking at another symphony collection, by Michael Schonwandt on Chandos, because they seem to be just about the only recordings of Schumann's choral ballads. Has anyone heard these? EDIT: Oh. I've put two volumes below, but a bit of searching suggests that Schonwandt might not have ever finished the series. Which if true is disappointing.

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I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Jo498

Can't help with the Ouvertures (I think I only have Manfred and another one as fillers) or the choral ballads. (I think there is an EMI box with most of the choral music including them). The Gardiner has been re-packaged cheaply including "Das Paradies und die Peri". I only have the earlier 3-disc-set and highly recommend it. Especially good is that one gets two versions of the 4th symphony and the early "Zwickau" fragment (a rarity) as well as the concertante piece with 4 horns.

The choral stuff is to some extent an acquired taste, I believe, although the "Peri" undoubtedly contains beautiful music, I am not so sure if it really works for me as a whole (and even less with "Der Rose Pilgerfahrt") (It does not help that I find both sujets rather soppy.)
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Madiel

Quote from: Jo498 on June 19, 2015, 03:18:38 AM
The Gardiner has been re-packaged cheaply including "Das Paradies und die Peri". I only have the earlier 3-disc-set and highly recommend it.

Yes, it's the repackaging with the oratorio that I'm thinking of getting. I kind of figured it was a no-brainer to choose that over the original 3-disc version. I've seen so many positive remarks everywhere about the performances.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Brian

#331
Quote from: orfeo on June 19, 2015, 03:59:47 AM
Yes, it's the repackaging with the oratorio that I'm thinking of getting. I kind of figured it was a no-brainer to choose that over the original 3-disc version. I've seen so many positive remarks everywhere about the performances.
Gardiner is definitely one of the top choices with the symphonies. Chailly, conducting Mahler's edited versions, is also surprisingly great - Mahler didn't have too heavy a hand, so my impression is even Schumann purists enjoy hearing these editions. I certainly do.

"Overture, Scherzo, and Finale" and maybe one of the other overtures is in the Gardiner box, but otherwise that Naxos disc could be a good gap-filler. I don't know the music, but Wildner is a very competent conductor of Germanic-tradition stuff. Also look into Antoni Wit's Warsaw PO "Scenes from Goethe's Faust" if you're into that sort of thing. (For some reason, this piece has been really lucky on record - all the recordings are really good.)

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Brian

Just listened to the overtures disc. There are more comments in the general listening thread, but honestly I find them skippable - indistinguishable from Raff, Farrenc, Rufinatscha, and all those names; definitely not "ooh! Schumann!" to me.

Brian

First Listen Friday!



I've never heard this work before - my comments about recordings a couple posts up were based on reviews/reputation - but this really is a fantastic piece. Though not everything keeps up interest to the same level (the overture's meh), there's a lot of really good stuff, and some arias (like Doctor Marianus') which suggest Schumann could have written good operas in a Weberian way. Two hours is a lot of time to invest in a piece, but I really enjoyed this.

Might rank in my favorite orchestral Schumann, along with the Symphony No. 4 and Konzertstuck for 4 Horns. Lovely singing and, of course, glorious orchestra/chorus.

Jo498

As you might know Schubert wrote one opera: "Genoveva" on a medieval subject. The count is off to crusade and an evil retainer tries to seduce the virtuous wife who of course refuses but is then innocently accused of cheating through some cabal but in the end everything is resolved.
There is a pretty good (if somewhat staid) recording with an all star cast from the 1970s  on Berlin Classics. I do not know it well and it may not go all that well on stage but it has some nice choruses and is overall better than one would expect from a rather obscure piece.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Jaakko Keskinen

Listening to Das Paradies und die Peri. Gorgeous work.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Jaakko Keskinen

I stand in awe before Scenes from Goethe's Faust. That Dies irae sequence is mindblowing.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Karl Henning

Quote from: Alberich on October 27, 2015, 09:22:28 AM
Listening to Das Paradies und die Peri. Gorgeous work.

I need to revisit that one.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Quote from: Alberich on October 29, 2015, 10:16:37 AM
I stand in awe before Scenes from Goethe's Faust.

Well, this one, too.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

kishnevi

Quote from: karlhenning on October 29, 2015, 10:19:34 AM
Well, this one, too.

Just be sure to firmly repress memories of Mahler as you listen since one of the Scenes Schumann set is the Final Scene.