Mozart - Piano Concerto 21 [Schmidt/Masur-Dresdner Philharmonie] 

I played Mozart's Piano Concerto 20 [my favourite Mozart Concerto] last month [17th April 2011], and now it's time for its companion piece on the disc, they were composed about a month apart, and even though there's certain similarities, they are in fact like opposites of each other, one minor and troublesome, the other major and sweet, but perversely they always seem to crop up as a pairing.

Annerose Schmidt is East German i believe, and these lovely Berlin Classics 'basics' are really that, a disc, a DigiPak, and a track listing, there's no biography, and no explanation of the music inside, it is not Annerose Schmidt on the cover, but it is a nice cover shot [by Elke Van De Velde], at first glance seemingly upside down, it's a nice clever idea, a girl laying on the grass, hair all over the place, and the logo / lettering is nicely laid out, but what has the picture got to do with the music?.

Even though it's written in a major key [C Major], there's still dark overtones in the music, as suggested by the opening in the orchestra [0:00-0:08], and by the more forte gestures almost after it, with frantic high strings [0:21-0:35], making a lovely inventive beginning, Annerose Schmidt is deeply in the same intensity as the orchestra, not merely an accompanist, there's a lovely sweet section where she makes her piano sing [3:55-4:24], and a little later provides some excellent background accompanying notes to the orchestra [4:32-4:44], the orchestral tutti comes back in force like early in the opening [5:54-6:14], Mozart really knows how to blast us with previously presented material, which comes back to reinforce and remind us just how great this music is, from negative to positive, the music is nicely switched by the piano [7:42-8:02], a lovely aching moment, and soon after the orchestra returns to the opening moments all over again [8:19+], coming back in power, especially that sweet tune [9:31-10:00], and the piano accompaniment right after [10:09-10:41], restatement is just heaven from Mozart, i loved this Concerto today. 

Here's Nikolai Lugansky playing the first movement on YouTube.

Schubert - 3 Klavierstucke [Tabe] 

Here's the companion work on this disc, to the great last Piano Sonata by Schubert i played a couple of months ago [21st March 2011], these 3 pieces fall under the shadow of the Impromptus, it was Brahms's idea to call them Klavierstucke rather than Impromptus, i think Brahms had a problem with what to call his own piano works, so he had a tendency to call them Klavierstucke, supposedly there was meant to be a fourth piece to this set, and it would have conveniently made 3 books of 4 Impromptus, the other thing which goes against this triptych is the length of a compact disc, the first 8 Impromptus neatly fit on one disc, and these other 3 seem like left overs in comparison, but they're a great work in their own right.

Kyoko Tabe is Japanese, born in 1967, she made this recording in 1993, on the front cover a nicely glowing Kyoko Tabe [photo by Toshiaki Takeuchi], very expertly composed, flowing hair, with well placed hands, and nice lettering, a very visually appealing product, Denon are so very good at this.

Each of these three pieces are tremendously interesting and enjoyable, they're very much in sonata form, with different central episodes to give variety and colour, on this listen i liked the last piece, it's easily the shortest of the three, in fact half as long as the other two, and makes a nice finale, it's a nice piano sound, maybe a little too warm, slightly reverberant, bit bass heavy in the recording, i just love the way the treble right hand notes [0:09-0:11] just slide in perfectly with the left hand playing, a very slight overlap which is joyous, and the right hand treble rolls [0:21-0:28], just really thrilling, plus there's this lovely bass warbling in the left hand [0:32+], the central section comes in really soon, and is more peaceful, i like it when Schubert uses the higher treble notes [1:24-1:44], and then later some more treble [2:36-2:55], at the very beginning starting to sound like Satie!, and then the opening is repeated, and to hear those warbling bass notes again is fantastic [4:23+], short-ish but full of character and fascination, Tabe plays it with excitement.

Here's Carlo Grante playing the third Klavierstucke on YouTube.

Shostakovich - Piano Trio 2 [Leonskaja/ Borodin Quartet] 

And another Piano Trio!, and another strange sounding Trio in the minor key, i've heard this quite a lot, but as a lot of music goes, i have a tendency to let the music wash over me, and not really listen, today i tried to listen, and i certainly got something more out of it, it's also good to have an excellent interpretation by these Russians, 

Elisabeth Leonskaja is Russian, now 65 years old, this disc was recorded in 1995, the booklet photo is very much a studio posed shot, and yet very well done, very monotone in black and white, with dark brown [photo by Thomas Muller].

It was the faster, more lithe movements that really work here, Shostakovich can really build up some sort of vehemence, and it's the last movement that i especially liked, it's a very jumpy staccato movement, with excellent use of pizzicato strings, the violin has dull non singing strings, but at the end of each phrase the treble string rings out twice [0:06-0:44], a very special effect, and then we're off on one of Shostakovich's angry outbursts [0:45-1:32], the piano singing out, and the strings plucking as if their life depended on it, the whole thing is couched in this desolate minor key, Shostakovich likes to use extremes, and the piano uses the growling bass in the main melody [3:27-4:00], low and fairly quiet, an ominous rumbling, the anger is incessant, the piano sings out in strong forte [5:31-5:54], and the strings follow suit, yes it can get very bleak and wretched, but there's a tune in there, and even a whiff of sweet melody trying to break out, about two thirds of the way through, the piano has these lovely rolls that Debussy would have been proud of [7:11+], which turn into harp-like strumming, the opening idea returns [8:35-9:12], strings chanting, piano having a bass grumble, the violin has a pizzicato so high in the treble [9:59-10:12], sounding so dead, right at the end the piano lazily hammers out some chords [10:16+], growing softer and softer to a pianissimo ending, Shostakovich can certainly eke out all sorts of sonorities with his instruments, and Leonskaja / Kopelman / Berlinsky are up to the task, creating all sorts of weird and wonderful sounds.

Here's the Chung Trio playing the fourth movement on YouTube.

Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio [Beaux Arts Trio] 

What a wonderful experience this was, every single movement, every single variation was a glorious revelation today, this whole work is an intense work of genius by Tchaikovsky, there's a darkness and funeral sadness and tragedy to the thing, like a Requiem, which it was in a sense for Rubinstein, the piano is the dominant force, and the whole work is couched in the minor key.

The Beaux Arts Trio were formed in 1955, and they disbanded in 2008, the only member to have survived the whole 53 year tenure is Manahem Pressler, this recording was made in 1988, the booklet front cover is fabulous [photo by Christian Steiner], the Trio, headed by Pressler in the front, and with superb lighting from the right, and a nice darkness on the left, the lettering is very nicely laid out, i really like this cover a lot.

Well what can i say about this incredible Piano Trio?, i used to feel that Beethoven's Archduke was unsurpassable, now i really feel that there's a challenger, i loved every bit of this Trio equally today, and it'd a 45 minute long work, so where can i possibly start to even begin to explain it?, even though it's in two movements, both of these can be conveniently broken down into half also, making four defining sections, and it's this third section of the theme and eleven variations which are endlessly fascinating, Tchaikovsky seems to use every device and option to garner the ultimate variety in this music, and he uses all three of the instruments to their full potential, here's a short synopsis of three that i found especially moving,

Variation 5 - plinking piano keys, high in the treble register, with the strings in a sort of droning mode. 

Variation 6 - a beautiful waltz!, truly lovely, full of swooning glides across the floor, with two extremes to it, the first very much a serenade [0:00-0:48], very sweet, and then a fiery section [0:48-1:18], stamped out louder, and these two are repeated again, and it's the second time we hear the serenade / waltz [1:18-2:04], that i hear the piano playing some rolling and bubbly piano accompaniment.

Variation 9 - Tchaikovsky called this piece Andante Flebile, flebile = feeble / weak, i can see the emphasis here, it's certainly a quieter variation, elsewhere in this Trio the piano hammers away, but here it's certainly restrained, it's also quite a strange variation, couched in mysterious mists, the piano comes in waves of ripples!, very very effective. 

Here's the second part of the variations being played on YouTube, variation 9 starts at [2:40+].

Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

This is the second time this work appears in my Blog [15th March 2010], i got to play this disc walking through the park on the way to Church, the first two works are heavenly, why have they been so obscure for so long?, thanks to Vernon Handley, his efforts to get them better known have paid off in this recording, this is now my 4th best disc of all time, that's a phenomenal achievement for a Composer that's on the fringes!.

Vernon Handley is British, born in 1930, and died recently in 2008, he was a great champion of British music, and recorded a lot that others wouldn't touch, he made this recording in 1990, the front cover is a nice painting by Johan Dahl, called Morning After A Stormy Night.

As far as i'm concerned, this is the best work on the disc, it's tremendous, i don't know why it isn't recorded more often, and why it isn't famous, Hyperion have supposedly helped us in giving the work 9 cuing points, but for a 14 minute work, it would have been better to have given timings within the work in the booklet, these tracks just get in the way for me, it starts off very quiet and sparse, with barely audible tremolo strings whimpering, and a solo violin beseeching us [0:04+ track 6], with an oboe as a duet partner [0:20+ track 6], and later a bass clarinet [1:01+ track 6], it's a very atmospheric opening, conjuring up the scene nicely, the music swells [0:00 track 7], with a lovely note on the soft brass, with rippling harp, the lower woodwind are wonderfully mysterious [0:41+ track 7], the chattering piccolos / flutes are exciting [0:05-0:21 track 8], and right after comes the very best bit of the Tone Poem, the music swells into a full blooded string serenade [0:21+ track 8], it's just simply stunning and gorgeous!, chattering woodwinds / flute return [0:00+ track 9], after a more tempestuous section, the woodwinds have a marvellous decrescendo [0:43-1:11 track 12], starting at the piccolos, and moving down through the woodwinds to the bassoon, right at the end there's excellent use of the glockenspiel [1:25+ track 13], it's a work that is on the whole sparse and restrained, but full of atmosphere and effect.

Here's Vernon Handley conducting The Witch Of Atlas on YouTube, it's a fairly quiet level of volume, plus it starts very quiet too!.