Schubert Piano Sonata in C minor
Superlative Schubert from Andsnes but the singer can overdo the intensity
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Schubert
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: EMI Classics
Magazine Review Date: 7/2007
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 384321-2
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Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sonata for Piano No. 19 |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt (Harfenspieler I: s |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
An die Türen (Harfenspieler III) |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen ass (Harfenspieler |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Totengräbers Heimweh |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Pflicht und Liebe |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Allegretto |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Lebensmut |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Johanna Sebus |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Andantino |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Ian Bostridge, Tenor Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano |
Author: Jeremy Nicholas
On the fourth and final recording of this rewarding collaboration in which these two empathetic Schubertians combine Schubert’s late sonatas with miscellaneous songs, Andsnes opens proceedings with a superlative account of the C minor Sonata, a worthy companion to the A major and B flat sonatas on earlier discs. If there is a more exuberant recording of the final tarantella I have yet to hear it.
After this, Bostridge’s first appearance is like a man at a fairground who comes off the helter-skelter to be greeted with the news that his mother’s just died. And indeed the three Goethe lyrics Gesänge des Harfners, and Totengräbers Heimweh, a setting of a verse by Jacob de Jachelutta, are concerned with death, solitude and suffering. Bostridge invests these texts with so much Weltzschmerz, every consonant and syllable earmarked for special attention, that he comes close to sounding like a parody of a Lieder singer. Such intensity of expression leaves no room for the listener’s own reaction to the emotion of these songs.
For the third section of the disc, Andsnes and Bostridge have selected six unfinished works and fashioned them into a sequence of fragments. I love the heroic tone Bostridge brings to Lebensmut (“Courage for Living”) and Johanna Sebus (“The dam bursts, the fields roar…”) in performances of wonderful freshness and spontaneity, and Andsnes in the bubbling Allegretto, D346 (how one wants it to continue!). Arne Akselberg has cleverly matched the piano acoustic in Henry Wood Hall with the solo items recorded in Potton Hall. The Andantino in C ends the disc and indeed the series in mid-bar, just as Schubert left it: brave. Bravo.
After this, Bostridge’s first appearance is like a man at a fairground who comes off the helter-skelter to be greeted with the news that his mother’s just died. And indeed the three Goethe lyrics Gesänge des Harfners, and Totengräbers Heimweh, a setting of a verse by Jacob de Jachelutta, are concerned with death, solitude and suffering. Bostridge invests these texts with so much Weltzschmerz, every consonant and syllable earmarked for special attention, that he comes close to sounding like a parody of a Lieder singer. Such intensity of expression leaves no room for the listener’s own reaction to the emotion of these songs.
For the third section of the disc, Andsnes and Bostridge have selected six unfinished works and fashioned them into a sequence of fragments. I love the heroic tone Bostridge brings to Lebensmut (“Courage for Living”) and Johanna Sebus (“The dam bursts, the fields roar…”) in performances of wonderful freshness and spontaneity, and Andsnes in the bubbling Allegretto, D346 (how one wants it to continue!). Arne Akselberg has cleverly matched the piano acoustic in Henry Wood Hall with the solo items recorded in Potton Hall. The Andantino in C ends the disc and indeed the series in mid-bar, just as Schubert left it: brave. Bravo.
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