Hiatus

There will be a hiatus on this blog while I go to Portugal to look for a house, might be a couple of weeks or more. See you soon.

246.Franz Schubert - Piano Trio in B flat major (1827)

Recording

Title: Historical Recordings 1926 and 1927
Performers: Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals
Year: 1926
Length: 31 minutes

Review

Talk about old recordings, this one is from the 20s, only 99 years removed from Schubert's composition, that is quite impressive in itself. Also all the members of this trio are real mythical characters of their time, and the playing is pretty good even with the different standards we have today.

The music is again some great Schubert chamber music. Each instrument really has its own voice and with such stellar performers it comes out beautifully even in such a muffled recording. In fact the muffling gives the album a certain charm, and while the clarity of sound might suffer the brilliance of the composition is perfectly discernible.

The great highlight for me here is the Andante. Schubert always seems to be at his consistent best in the slow movements, where his romantic spirit can come to full fruition. Not only a great piece but also a very interesting recording.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The composer finished the work in 1828, in the last year of his life. It was published in 1836 as Opus 99, 8 years after the composer's death.

First five minutes:

245. Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in G major, D894 (1826)

Recording

Title: Solo Piano Works
Performers: Arcadi Volodos
Year: 2001
Length: 39 minutes

Review

A beautiful piano sonata by Schubert which really stands out for its slowly developing and very affecting first movement. The structure of the piece is also somewhat uncommon. Instead of alternating moods the piece seems to become increasingly cheery as it goes on. From the slow and melancholy first to the allegretto at the end.

A thing that Schubert manages to do unlike anyone before him is to give a sense of unity to his multiple movement pieces, and this one is another good example of it. The whole sonata seems to be one big developing work, and a great one as well.

Now that Beethoven is dead the crown of the Sonata has appropriately been taken by Schubert, as have many other crowns in fact, he is for a short time the greatest living composer in Europe.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

This sonata is often called the Fantaisie.

The first part of the very long 1st movement:

244. Felix Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826, 1843)

Recording

Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Performers: Seiji Ozawa, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Judi Dench
Director: Seiji Ozawa
Year: 1992
Length: 58 minutes

Review

There are few pieces as evocative and delightful as Mendelssohn's overture to Midsummer Night's Dream. Composed when he was only 17 it evokes the sound of fairies feet near the beginning and it's chorus incorporates a sound very much reminiscent of donkey braying as a representation of Bottom. And it is very catchy, I've had it stuck in my head all day long.

But the composition does not end here, Mendelssohn also produced his most famous composition for this work, the Wedding March which has been used endlessly in weddings since this was composed. Unfortunately it is hard to separate the music from the function it has been used in, still, it is a pretty powerful piece of music.

But a great highlight is the Notturno with its dreamy feel and its use of brass in a completely beautiful way. And it is all surprisingly cinematic. This is highlighted in this recording by having Judi Dench contextualising the music in hte relevant parts of the play, and what Mendelssohn managed in terms of evocation is splendid.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Felix Mendelssohn composed an overture inspired by the play in 1826, intended for concert performance. In 1843, because of the fame of the overture, he was commissioned to write incidental music for a German stage production of the play. He added the Overture to it, and both were used in most stage versions through the nineteenth century. Among Mendelssohn's incidental pieces is his Wedding March, used most often today as a recessional in Western weddings. Between 1917 and 1939 Carl Orff also wrote incidental music for the play Ein Sommernachtstraum (performed in 1939). Since Mendelssohn was a Jew, his music had been banned by the Nazi regime, and the Nazi cultural officials put out a call for new music for the play: Orff was one of the musicians who responded.

Leibowitz conducts the overture:

Part 1:



Part 2:

243. Franz Schubert - String Quartet in G major, D 887 (1826)

Recording

Title: String Quartets 14 "Death and the Maiden" & 15
Performers: Busch Quartet
Year: 1939
Length: 43 minutes

Review

Old recordings can be a good or bad thing. I really dislike them for vocal pieces, for me voice needs to be pretty clean, but in works like this string quartet it gets a certain charm. So I have no problem with this 1939 recording, even if it does not sound as clean as more recent ones, in fact the performance is full of life.

Schubert is a master at String quartets and this is his last one. It is a very long work and also a kind of bitter-sweet one. It goes through quite a number of emotional states, and as befits such a great romantic composer they are all superbly achieved through music.

This is probably not the best Schubert quartet, but it is still good enough to more than justify its inclusion on this list. The sound of the Busch quartet is also interesting enough to make this a really great recording indeed. Recommended.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

n the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors, parts of the Allegro molto moderato (including the dotted rhythm of the opening) are used as a dramatic measure during several scenes that form central parts of the plot.

Unfortunately could find no video for this.

242. Gioacchino Rossini - Il Viaggio a Reims

Recording

Title: Il Viaggio a Reims
Performers: Sylvia McNair, Samuel Ramey
Director: Claudio Abbado
Year: 1992
Length: 2 hours 10 minutes

Review

Yet another Rossini Italian opera, and his last Italian opera as from here on out he would be composing in French. Hopefully with a change in language he will stop recycling so much, but somehow I don't believe it.

The more Rossini you listen to the more you realise that there is endless repetition and recycling in his music. What is particularly sad is that when something new comes along it is actually pretty great! Just that he puts a couple of new songs in each new opera and recycles the rest.

This opera is particularly haphazard when it comes to plot, consisting of people of different nationalities at an Inn on their way to the coronation of Charles X of France. It serves as a display of European unity and harmony, etc. In the end there are so many characters that no real plot develops, only 6 or 7 micro plots. The music is quite good, when not recycled, and there is a 14 voice piece which is quite striking, and the final thing where each nationality sings their own song is quite amusing, is somewhat cheap as Rossini is now recycling from other composers. This is frankly non-essential Rossini.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Rossini's last opera in the Italian language (all of his later works were in French), premiered under the title Le voyage à Reims, ou l'Hôtel du Lys-d'Or. Commissioned to celebrate the coronation of French King Charles X in Rheims in 1825, the work has been critically acclaimed as one of Rossini's finest compositions. It is a demanding work, requiring 14 soloists (three sopranos, one contralto, two tenors, four baritones, and four basses). At its premiere, it was sung by the greatest voices of the day.

Since the opera was written for a specific occasion, with a plot about European aristocrats, officers - and one poetess - en route to join in the French coronation festivities that the opera itself was composed for, Rossini never intended for the opera to have a life beyond a few performances in Paris. The composer later re-used about half of the music in Le comte Ory.

One of the great Ensemble pieces:

241. Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in D major, D850 (1825)

Recording

Title: Piano Sonatas in D major, D850 & A minor,D784
Performers: Mitsuko Uchida
Year: 1999
Length: 39 minutes

Review

This is Schubert's happiest piano sonata, and it is a quite bubbly one. But this might not be his emotional element. The sonata just isn't as emotionally convincing as most other Schubert works.

It just doesn't hit that Shubertian place in me. However it is still a pretty great sonata. But then there is a reason why he is often seen as Beethoven's successor. The first and second movements are particularly good here.

Another interesting aspect of this sonata is its length. It is a very long sonata, even if he would eventually go to further lengths in composing. His late sonatas are even longer! Still, it is never boring and never feels overly long. So good, but not amazing.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The sonata is noticeably faster in tempo than many other of Schubert's sonatas. Whereas Schubert would regularly restrain an Allegro movement with markings such as moderato or ma non troppo, in this sonata, both the first and third movements are marked with vivace. Even the slower second movement is marked with con moto, meaning with movement.

First movement: