Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Rubinstein]
In the early days of buying compact discs, i demanded that all discs should be digital [DDD], well later i somewhat relaxed that as 'well recorded' discs that were analogue were acceptable as long as they 'sounded as if' they were digital!, and that's been relaxed further, as long as it's well recorded and it's not mono, it's taken me a long time to delve into some of the 'older guys' in the Classical world, certainly Szeryng / Kempff / Magaloff / Arrau / Curzon / Richter, but also i need to delve into Oistrakh / Heifetz / Grumiaux and others [yes big omissions!], so here's my first foray into Rubinstein, and it's good to get to know him, i hear his Chopin Nocturnes are the definitive set, so maybe i ought to go there next, but it's wonderful not just my musical love is branching out into all sorts of areas, but now i'm delving into a wider range of interpreters as well.
Arthur Rubinstein [1887-1982] was Polish, but later became an American citizen, gifted with a photographic memory of scores, he preferred not to practice on the piano heavily, rather relying on the moment of performance to take wing, he recorded this work in 1965 at the age of 78, the sound is very good considering the age of the recording, the front cover picture is by Eva Rubinstein [his Daughter], showing Rubinstein seated at the piano at home, a nice intimate picture, i like the way it has a light blue green border, the composer and works lettering at the top and bottom of the photograph, but the Pianist lettering could have been better done, but all told a great issue.
As this is a first listen, i always get a general vibe of what i think, i certainly find Rubinstein in the 'staccato' pool of Pianists, in fact very much so, he loves to bring out the percussive elements of piano playing, and yet... he has such a way with line and forward thinking, that there's still the bigger picture of legato throughout even his staccato episodes, of course the great work that this is, it's so hard to beat the first movement, and i always talk about it, it's the 'perfect' Piano Sonata movement, and it's so sublime, it's almost an Impromptu in nature, Rubinstein plays the movement without the exposition repeat, which cuts the movement down by 5 minutes to 14 minutes, also he plays it quite flowing, keeps it moving, i hear others who almost come to some sort of standstill, Rubinstein plays the opening gambit very straight [0:00-0:50], not hanging on notes, or letting 'silence' do some of the talking, i would have preferred taking a little more time to let the beauty of the melody sink in, i've always felt that timewise this opening melody works best if it takes 1 minute, but then Rubinstein uses this straightforward approach to his benefit later, as he doesn't treat the piece as some soppy happy song, rather there's a serious and sombre virtuosity there, Rubinstein gets the fortes right [1:26+], and i like the way he keeps busy in the bass hand, some Pianists use the left hand as accompaniment, but here Rubinstein makes things more like an equal voice, after where the exposition repeat would be, we delve into a more Minor key melody [4:48-5:21], now that sounds so wonderful, and a little later here's where Rubinstein comes into his own with using a great degree of staccato [6:00-7:15], where others smooth out the notes with more of a legato, this is so different than ive heard others play, it's like he's extra emphasising what's not really there, but i actually like the effect, i like those morse code jagged lines, the more i hear Rubinstein, the more i like, also i had a look at the score online, and it's enlightening following along.
Here's Arthur Rubinstein playing the first movement of Piano Sonata 21 on YouTube.
Arthur Rubinstein [1887-1982] was Polish, but later became an American citizen, gifted with a photographic memory of scores, he preferred not to practice on the piano heavily, rather relying on the moment of performance to take wing, he recorded this work in 1965 at the age of 78, the sound is very good considering the age of the recording, the front cover picture is by Eva Rubinstein [his Daughter], showing Rubinstein seated at the piano at home, a nice intimate picture, i like the way it has a light blue green border, the composer and works lettering at the top and bottom of the photograph, but the Pianist lettering could have been better done, but all told a great issue.
As this is a first listen, i always get a general vibe of what i think, i certainly find Rubinstein in the 'staccato' pool of Pianists, in fact very much so, he loves to bring out the percussive elements of piano playing, and yet... he has such a way with line and forward thinking, that there's still the bigger picture of legato throughout even his staccato episodes, of course the great work that this is, it's so hard to beat the first movement, and i always talk about it, it's the 'perfect' Piano Sonata movement, and it's so sublime, it's almost an Impromptu in nature, Rubinstein plays the movement without the exposition repeat, which cuts the movement down by 5 minutes to 14 minutes, also he plays it quite flowing, keeps it moving, i hear others who almost come to some sort of standstill, Rubinstein plays the opening gambit very straight [0:00-0:50], not hanging on notes, or letting 'silence' do some of the talking, i would have preferred taking a little more time to let the beauty of the melody sink in, i've always felt that timewise this opening melody works best if it takes 1 minute, but then Rubinstein uses this straightforward approach to his benefit later, as he doesn't treat the piece as some soppy happy song, rather there's a serious and sombre virtuosity there, Rubinstein gets the fortes right [1:26+], and i like the way he keeps busy in the bass hand, some Pianists use the left hand as accompaniment, but here Rubinstein makes things more like an equal voice, after where the exposition repeat would be, we delve into a more Minor key melody [4:48-5:21], now that sounds so wonderful, and a little later here's where Rubinstein comes into his own with using a great degree of staccato [6:00-7:15], where others smooth out the notes with more of a legato, this is so different than ive heard others play, it's like he's extra emphasising what's not really there, but i actually like the effect, i like those morse code jagged lines, the more i hear Rubinstein, the more i like, also i had a look at the score online, and it's enlightening following along.
Here's Arthur Rubinstein playing the first movement of Piano Sonata 21 on YouTube.
