Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Lebensstürme, D947 (1828) [12:54]
Fantasie in F minor, D940 (1828) [18:56]
Variation movement from “Death and the Maiden” quartet (arr. Menuhin,
2014) [14:02]
8 Variations on an Original Theme in A-flat major, Op. 35, D813 (1824) [19:41]
Mookie Lee-Menuhin (piano)
Jeremy Menuhin (piano)
rec. 26-29 January 2015, Mendelssohn-Saal, Gewandhuis Leipzig, Germany.
GENUIN CLASSICS GEN16412 [65:34]
This is a strangely troubling recording. I know we’re
supposed to be open to lots of new things and be able to embrace alternative
views of familiar music, but this is a Lebensstürme to which I find
it hard to warm. The tempo is rather on the pedestrian side, though not much
slower than Justus Franz and Christoph Eschenbach on EMI/Warner (see review).
This latter duo shows just how much more drama can be brought out of this
remarkable score, even when exploring detail over helter-skelter virtuosity.
The Menuhin duo a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-t-e-s everything to the point of it sounding
like a warm-up practise run-through rather than a real performance, and there
is no sense of flight. It’s as if they’ve taken the speed at which
they could effectively repeat the first two notes and used that as a basis
for deciding the pace of the whole. The players speed up a little when the
music hots up with those downward scales – in the recapitulation that
is; not earlier on, but in general I can’t find much to appreciate in
something so leaden.
This doesn’t bode well for another favourite, the Fantasie D 940,
which has to go up against the likes of Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu who recorded
it for CBS in 1985 in a classic version now available from Sony. The Menuhin
duo brings some mighty dynamic contrasts to this piece, but to my ears there
isn’t much poetry or lyricism going on. Even the most magical passages
exist in a kind of stodge from which there is no escape, and while the brisker
second section moves along a bit more there is still a feeling of wooden boxes
being piled on top of each other rather than the building of sublime musical
architecture.
The USP for this release is in the arrangement of the slow movement from Schubert’s
String Quartet D 810 famously known as Death and the Maiden.
The opening bars of this movement come from a song bearing this name, from
which Schubert goes on to create numerous variations. This is a very effective
transcription, not over-egging the potential of the piano over the original
quartet, but by no means avoiding effects which make it into something convincing
for pianos. Without a comparison it’s easier to relax into this performance
on its own terms, but there is still something earthbound about the whole
thing. Stretching my brain to try and work out what it going on and I can
only conclude that it has to do with phrasing, both of inner voices and leading
melodic lines. This is the kind of piece around which each expressive arc
leads us out and back, each time in different ways both subtle and widely
contrasting. Here the shapes are rather blandly placed, and while there are
plenty of nice moments we’re not held in much of a spell. In the end,
it’s more like being held in an endless telephone queue.
This alas is almost also true of the Variations on an Original Theme D
813, though there are more redeeming features in this performance. The
Menuhin duo seems more at home in this work, though the opening comes across
rather as a dirge when compared to the more lively Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne
on Hyperion (see review).
With the slower tempo here and in Lebensstürme – also much,
much better from Lewis and Osborne – our attention is sometimes unfortunately
brought to the ends of phrases, which can end up sounding a little clunky.
This duo has plenty of technique and the piano sound is admirable, but even
with the première recording of the quartet transcription and a programme that
promises much, there is nothing here that sets my heart racing. This is a
Schubert programme that has the potential to make you feel you’ve fallen
in love all over again. I’m left feeling more like the one whose heart
was given away the very next day, so I would tactfully suggest you also save
yours for something more special.
Dominy Clements
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