Recording
Title: The European Busch-Serkin Duo Recordings Vol. III
Performers: Adolf Busch & Rudolf Serkin
Year: 1931
Length: 22 minutes
Review
These very old recordings sometimes work better than others, but there is a constant in the violin playing: it is markedly different from more modern performances, it always sounds more gypsy-like, with a thinner sound.
This is particularly noticeable in the second movement of this recording, it gives the music an interesting flavour, however, and the muffled quality of the recording does give its own ambience to the music. In this sense it is not very faithful to Schubert's vision, he was surely not imagining the contingencies of recording technology when composing, but it is charming.
As a piece, this fantasy is not really in my top ten Schubert pieces, it is fun and all but it doesn't touch me in the way that Schubert so often does. Nonetheless it is a great bit of music with some quite flashy performances both in the piano and violin.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
In 1897, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's birth was marked in the musical world by festivals and performances dedicated to his music. In Vienna, there were ten days of concerts, and the Emperor Franz Joseph gave a speech recognizing Schubert as the creator of the art song, and one of Austria's favorite sons. Karlsruhe saw the first production of his opera Fierrabras.
First movement:
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