MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... 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 Plain text for smartphones & printers


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

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Wanderer Fantasy in C, D760 [22:38]
Sonata in A, D664 [21:25]
Leoš JANÁČEK (1854-1928)
Sonata 1.X.1905, “In the Street” [14:32]
Herbert Schuch (piano)
rec. 1-4 August 2012, Studio 2, Bavarian Radio, Munich
OEHMS CLASSICS OC 863 [58:35]

This recital has a life-and-death quality: the heroic strugglings of Schubert’s wanderer, the funereal tone of Janáček’s memorial sonata, the sweet innocence of the sonata by Schubert. Herbert Schuch has proven time and again that he’s a brilliant creator of CD programmes, and so far they’ve all been capital-G great. Since getting this review copy, I’ve been going back again and again to his spectacular debut: Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Ravel’s Miroirs (Oehms Classics OC 541).
 
In part that’s because this is his first disappointment. He’s entitled to one at this point. The problem is with Schubert’s Sonata in A major, which gets a performance that I feel comfortable calling plain, slow, even sleepy. It would require either serious concentration or a metronome for me to figure out if any one movement is faster than the other two. The playing is very pretty, but it’s not my thing at all.
 
Schuch is never one to be generic, though. His new ideas in the other two works are good ones. The Wanderer Fantasy is achingly beautiful, especially the first movement, where he reveals his usual gift for finding about a hundred different gradations in volume, warmth and tonal colour. His Janáček sonata is unusually powerful, especially the moving funeral marches, where again dynamic range is another Schuch asset, since he can build up massive climaxes.
 
Then there’s that oh-so-dainty, cutesy Schubert sonata. He’s taking another calculated risk, like the risks he took in, say, Ravel’s Gaspard, but this one doesn’t work, for me. I’d be fine with him continuing to be daring, though, since the hits are so unforgettable. The sound quality is a little bit constricted and boxed in by the studio acoustic. It does not make Schuch’s full glory evident if you can believe me that he is capable of making prettier sounds than the ones recorded here.
 
Brian Reinhart 

Masterwork Index: Schubert piano sonatas