Debussy Preludes - E. Robert Schmitz

[Choo Choo]

HMV Japan made a mistake on my latest order, and sent me this CD instead of the one (with a very similar product code) which I'd actually ordered:



They now say kindly that I can keep it, and they'll send me the other CD anyway.

First reaction was to eBay it still sealed, as I really am not looking for another recording of the Preludes - but then I wondered if I might be missing something special.  Does anybody have a view on Schmitz's Debussy?  I know that he wrote a book on Debussy's piano works, but couldn't find anything about his recordings.  All I can make out from the packaging is that the recordings (Book I only) are from 1948.

[Drasko]

I know that he wrote a book on Debussy's piano works

That amount of knowledge ranks you as major E. Robert Schmitz scholar in my eyes.

[Montpellier]

Never heard this performer and I've heard a few renderings of books 1 and 2.  The date suggests they were recorded for the old 78s.

[Choo Choo]

That amount of knowledge ranks you as major E. Robert Schmitz scholar in my eyes.

You jest - but there really are such people.  For example, here is a link to a paper about the musical relationship between Schmitz and Charles Ives, who (apparently) were close personal friends.

I also turned up this snippet of biography (my bold):

Elie Robert Schmitz was born in Paris on February 8, 1889. As a boy he sang in a choir at the Church of the Assumption. When he was seventeen, he went on to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied violin, solfège, and ensemble music. His studies were interrupted in 1909, when he toured the United States as an accompanist and coach to the celebrated singers Emma Eames, Maggie Teyte, and Leo Slezak. Schmitz returned to the Conservatory in 1910 and received first prize in piano.

From 1911 to 1914 Schmitz and his wife, Germaine, whom he married on July 1, 1912, directed the Association Musicale Moderne et Artistique. This organization, which included an orchestra, chorus, vocal octet, woodwind ensemble, and string quartet, drew the attention of Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent D'Indy, among others. In 1914 the Association changed its name to the Association de Concerts Schmitz and grew to include a full orchestra and a 150-member chorus. The Association was responsible for many first performances, including Debussy's Première rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra, Roussel's Evocations, Le Flem's Crépuscules d'amour, and Milhaud's Suite Symphonique. Schmitz also introduced a series of lecture-recitals entitled "The Musical Geography." These programs concentrated on the music of a particular country, from its folk origins to contemporary composers, with a chamber group performing the music.

Schmitz's concert career flourished; in 1912 he toured Holland and Belgium for three months. He knew all of Debussy's piano works and performed them often. He also coached and accompanied David Devries and Maggie Teyte (who sang the title roles in Pelléas and Mélisande ) for Debussy in their performances of the composer's works.

World War I brought a sudden halt to Schmitz's career. He spent three years at the front, served at the Battle of Verdun, received a shrapnel wound in his left hand, and had eight months of hospitalization for gassing and fatigue. Schmitz's understanding and theory of piano technique originated from his war experience: discussions he had with comrades who were scientists and from his observations of ballistics, mechanics, and acoustics. After the war he went on to study physiology. Schmitz put forth his ideas about piano technique in his book The Capture of Inspiration (1935), which was voted one of the "fifty books of the year" for 1936.

Schmitz reestablished his musical career in the United States after his arrival in New York in 1918. He performed works by the contemporary composers Carpenter, Schoenberg, Ravel, Prokofiev, Milhaud, Honegger, and de Falla. In 1920, Schmitz and Thomas Edison collaborated in making recordings at Edison's New Jersey laboratories. These recordings are now treasured by collectors.

It was also in 1920 that Robert and Germaine Schmitz founded the Franco-American Society, which in 1923 was renamed Pro-Musica, Incorporated. Seeking to promote new music, the Society offered concerts, lecture-recitals, and publications through its forty international chapters. Thanks to the Schmitzes' entrepreneurship, fund-raising, research, and wide musical contacts, the Society was able to sponsor the first American appearances of Ravel, Bartók, and Respighi, as well as concerts and lectures by Hindemith, Schoenberg, Honegger, Milhaud, Roussel, Tansman, Prokofiev and his wife, Lina Llubera, Casella, Bliss, Tailleferre, Schmitt, Kodály, Stravinsky, Webern, Tcherepnin, Toch, Boulanger, Salzedo, Barrère, Eichheim, and the Pro Arte Quartet. Pro-Musica also sent the American composers Marion Bauer, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Louis Gruenberg to their Paris chapter and the tenor Roland Hayes to Moscow and Leningrad. They established an International Advisory Board, which included Alban Berg and Egon Wellesz, and in 1923 began a series of International Referendum Concerts. Schmitz toured Europe and the United States performing, lecturing, teaching, and taking care of chapter business. On these tours, Robert and Germaine Schmitz would research local concert history, trying to bring a good balance of old and new in each location.

After Pro-Musica's dissolution in 1936, Schmitz continued to promote new music. He performed, recorded, wrote, edited music, and taught. The E. Robert Schmitz School was established in San Francisco in 1945, and offered a Debussy Prize for pianists. Schmitz died in San Francisco on September 5, 1949.

It looks as if Schmitz might have not only known Debussy personally, but may have been one of the first to perform the Preludes.

Never heard this performer and I've heard a few renderings of books 1 and 2.  The date suggests they were recorded for the old 78s.

I think you're right.  They must also be amongst the last recordings he made.

I think I'm going to hang on to this disk.

[Drasko]

I think I'm going to hang on to this disk.

Interesting person as it seems, I'd opt for keeping the disc as well (sans jest).

[sidoze]

Does anybody have a view on Schmitz's Debussy? 

will gladly provide a view in exchange for a copy

[Choo Choo]

will gladly provide a view in exchange for a copy

Seems fair enough 

[Parsifal]

I like Werner Haas' recording of these works, although the audio is problematic in spots (old analog recording has some saturation distortion in loud passages).  Then I noticed this recording

[asin]B00006LA10[/asin]

I also noticed this, as an alternative in presumably splendid sound.

[asin]B000GPI26I[/asin]

Any comments? 

[Todd]

[asin]B00006LA10[/asin]

Poor sound.  Poor interpretation.  Decent playing.  Colorless.  Not worth the time.

[asin]B000GPI26I[/asin]

Glorious sound.  Beautiful playing.  Boring as hell.

YMMV.

[Parsifal]

Hmmm.  Found a very cheap used copy of the Osborn so I couldn't resist getting it.  I also ordered the recent Aimard, since I there is a good chance it would be odd.

The sets of Debussy Preludes are pieces that I find endlessly fascinating, probably because they seem so ambiguous.  I can listen to a performance of a piece by Chopin, for instance, and think, "ok, that's captured it."  It seems impossible to define any performance of a Debussy prelude that really captures it, no matter how good.  So I seem to accumulate more and more of them.  The first set I got was Dino Ciani, on DG.  Since I've found myself with, Werner Haas, Monique Haas, Thibaudet, Ciccolini, Francois, Michelangeli, Fergus-Thompson, Bavouzet, Crossley, Cortot.  This is bad.  When am I going to find time to listen to all this.

[Mandryka]

Hmmm.  Found a very cheap used copy of the Osborn so I couldn't resist getting it.  I also ordered the recent Aimard, since I there is a good chance it would be odd.

The sets of Debussy Preludes are pieces that I find endlessly fascinating, probably because they seem so ambiguous.  I can listen to a performance of a piece by Chopin, for instance, and think, "ok, that's captured it."  It seems impossible to define any performance of a Debussy prelude that really captures it, no matter how good.  So I seem to accumulate more and more of them.  The first set I got was Dino Ciani, on DG.  Since I've found myself with, Werner Haas, Monique Haas, Thibaudet, Ciccolini, Francois, Michelangeli, Fergus-Thompson, Bavouzet, Crossley, Cortot.  This is bad.  When am I going to find time to listen to all this.

I love Osborne's recording.

[Parsifal]

I love Osborne's recording.

There's some hope, then.   

I really like Werner Haas, except for the saturation problems in the audio that intrudes in a few of the louder passages.  It is really hard to describe this music, which seems intangible.  The best I can say is that he doesn't rush, he has a convincing poetic sense, but not so un-rushed and poetic that the musical thread is broken.

[Mandryka]

There's some hope, then.   

I really like Werner Haas, except for the saturation problems in the audio that intrudes in a few of the louder passages.  It is really hard to describe this music, which seems intangible.  The best I can say is that he doesn't rush, he has a convincing poetic sense, but not so un-rushed and poetic that the musical thread is broken.

Two which I enjoy a lot which don't figure on your list are Ericourt and Austbø. (Isn't it nice that you can do an ø so easily on an ipad!!)

[Todd]

Ericourt

Ericourt's Debussy is wonderful.  Pity about the execrable sound. 

[Parsifal]

It is rare that a remastering job on an old recording is decisive, but this is the case for this one, in my experience anyway.

I recently received this:

[asin]B0079J283C[/asin]

and the audio is splendid.  I previously had this one

[asin]B000002S6Z[/asin]

which I sold off long ago because I considered it unlistenable.  Unfortunately I don't have the old set for an A/B test, so maybe it is my attitude that has changed, really.  But Gieseking's control of the timbre of the piano comes through beautifully in the newest release of these old (1954) mono recordings.  I don't think the fact that the new release is SACD is the issue.  I think they have simply paid more attention to getting the analog playback right (calibration and proper eq of the tape playback) and using judicious equalization and noise processing in the digital domain.  In the notes the engineers talk about comparing to the previous issues of the same recording and I suspect they spun the 1954 vinyl to hear how it is supposed to sound.  After listening to a few favorite pieces, the quality of Gieseking's work is impossible to ignore.

As an aside, this is also miraculous.
[asin]B0000012XV[/asin]