MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
Crotchet


Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Papillons Op.2 (1829-31)* [16:01]
Arabeske in C major, Op.18 (1837)* [6:40]
Humoreske in B flat major, Op.20 (1839)* [29:13]
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Keyboard Sonata No.36 in c minor, Hob. XVI/20** [19:36]
Andrįs Schiff (piano)
rec. dates and venue not stated: recorded 1986. DDD.
Reissues from Denon C37-7573* and C37-7801**
DAL SEGNO DSPRCD044 [71:10] 
Experience Classicsonline


The unusual coupling here brings together next year’s anniversary-boy Schumann (b.1810) with this year’s, Haydn (d.1809), on a well-filled CD, one of a series of Denon recordings which Dal Segno have licensed for reissue: Schiff appears again in a recording of Bach Keyboard Concertos with the ECO conducted by George Malcolm (DSPRCD042).
 

Denon originally (1986) offered the three Schumann works on their own, so the reissue is a real bargain, a fact which Dal Segno surprisingly fail to proclaim on the cover, which lists only the Schumann. Was the addition of the Haydn a late decision which caught out the design department? 

I’m very well acquainted with and approve of Schiff’s way with Mozart and Schubert, but his Schumann and Haydn had passed me by, so I was especially pleased to have received this CD for review. I was not disappointed. 

Andrįs Schiff is something of a pluralist in the works of Schumann included here: he has a version of Arabeske on a 2-CD set, Warner Maestro 2564 691731, with Kreisleriana and the Symphonic Studies; also on a budget-price CD in a multi-composer programme, Warner 2564 615882. The single-CD Warner Elatus disc of his Schumann seems to have been deleted. He couples Humoreske with the Piano Sonata, in a live 1999 recording, on a 2-CD ECM set, ECM472 1192. All these recordings, including the original Denon release of the Schumann, were welcomed on their first appearance. 

Schiff’s tempi on this Dal Segno reissue are generally a little on the slow side. His account of Papillons at 16:01, for example, is significantly slower than Sviatoslav Richter’s 14:38 on his budget-price EMI Classics Encore recording. Richter is first-rate in this repertoire and his CD made an excellent bargain, with the Fantasie and Faschingsschwank as couplings – so why does it appear to have been deleted in the UK? – but Schiff’s account stands up well in its own right. The opening might benefit from a little more energy; otherwise only the comparative timings make it seem slower than it actually sounds. The Richter is still available as a download from passionato (5752322 with the HMV logo or 5752332 with the Angel logo) though, at £7.99 (mp3) or £9.99 (flac) it’s now dearer than the CD. The German version of the CD appears still to be available for around €6 from emiclassics.de. 

Schiff’s tempo for Arabeske is a little swifter on his Warner recording – 5:49 against 6:40 – but, once again, the stopwatch tells only part of the story: I didn’t feel that the older performance was too slow. In fact, compared with Bernd Glemser’s 7:14 on Naxos (8.550715, with Piano Sonata No.2 and Nachtstücke), it’s quite fast. For many listeners Kempff’s 4-CD DG set is the benchmark for Schumann’s piano music; his 4-CD set is a real bargain at around £20 (471 312 2). Kempff takes 6:25, which is very little faster than Schiff here – in fact, I thought Schiff just a little more light and airy than Kempff. 

I have seen Schiff’s newer ECM version of Humoreske described as riper and more complex than his ‘relatively strait-laced’ Denon performance; I haven’t had a chance to hear the ECM recording, but I certainly don’t recognise the epithet strait-laced as a description of the reissued version. His time of 29:13 is not unduly slow: Kempff on the 4-CD DG set listed above, Dalberto on Warner Elatus and Sviatoslav Richter on his 1956 Moscow recording are only a little faster, though he is rather slower than, for example, Richard Goode on Nonesuch, who takes just 26:19 or Radu Lupu (25:57, Decca 440 496 2). Goode’s 1981 recording is deleted in the UK on CD but available as an mp3 download for a mere £2.49 from Amazon.co.uk. or from the Nonesuch website in the US. The Richter is also available as a download in rather fragile sound from Amazon.co.uk. 

I can’t describe Goode’s performance as sounding in any way hurried; though he is often nimble-fingered in the faster sections, he plays reflectively where appropriate – after all, Schumann did describe the work as ‘not very cheerful, perhaps my most melancholy’. Schiff is not much less nimble than Goode in the faster passages but inclined to be a little dreamier in the more reflective moments. There is room for both interpretations of this music – your choice will depend on which aspect of Schumann’s multi-faceted music you prefer to emphasise. For my money Schiff on Dal Segno achieves a fine balance between, for example, section IV, where liveliness and strength are the order of the day (Nach und nach immer lebhafter und stärker), and the simple tenderness of section V, marked Einfach und zart. Incidentally, I wish that these sections had been more clearly listed in the booklet; there is no track listing and some but not all of the markings are embedded in the notes. Better still, many recordings track the sections separately. 

Schiff has also recorded some of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas for Warner, on two mid-price Elatus recordings, one of which (Nos.59-62) was reviewed so enthusiastically by Paul Shoemaker that it prompted him to seek out the other. Unfortunately, that second CD seems no longer to be available, but the one which PS reviewed is still around (2564 60807-2 – see review). Schiff’s 1986 Denon CD included the more mature Sonatas Nos.43 and 46 alongside No.36; let us hope that Dal Segno have plans to license and reissue these, too. 

If, in the centenary year, you still regard Haydn as playing second or third fiddle to Beethoven and Mozart, try listening to some of his symphonies, string quartets or piano trios, several of which have featured in my MusicWeb International Download Roundups in 2009. The keyboard sonatas are the most neglected of all his music; what better opportunity to rectify that this year – or any year – than by starting with Schiff’s performance here, which is every bit as good as his Schumann. 

His playing here has that fortepiano-like lightness of touch which I associate with his Mozart. If he can make one of the earlier sonatas sound this well, I must investigate his Elatus recording of the later works which PS recommended. Just one caveat – I have seen this sonata described as an example of Haydn’s Sturm und Drang style, but there isn’t much evidence of storm or stress in Schiff’s performance. 

The recording throughout is truthful. The notes are helpful – and couched in more idiomatic English than I understand the original Denon to have been – but somewhat terse. Though frequent reference are made, for example, to the often abrupt mood-swings in Schumann’s writing, the terms which Schuman himself employed to explain these, his ‘Florestan’ and ‘Eusebius’ sides are nowhere mentioned. A clearer indication of who the novelist Jean Paul was and the extent to which he influenced Schumann might have been welcome. 

I’ve already complained that there is no track-listing for the sections of Humoreske. The playing time of 71:39 stated on the rear insert is a trifle optimistic: both the Dal Segno website and my player give the true time as 71:10. 

There is no shortage of good recordings of Schumann’s piano music, many of them at mid-price or less, not least the 4-CD Kempff set, but there is always room for one more of the quality of this Schiff reissue, especially when coupled with an opportunity to get to know one of Haydn’s keyboard works. When you place your order, don’t forget to add the budget-price Alto reissue of Alfred Brendel in Schumann’s c-minor Fantasie and Symphonic Studies, which I recently recommended: ALC1046 – see review.

Brian Wilson



 

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.