Skip to main content
Read page text
page 4
RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR January ‘Christian Tetzlaff, more than any other violinist around today, is utterly attuned to Schumann’s idiom in these later works’ Harriet Smith celebrates a new benchmark in recordings of Schumann’s three violin sonatas Schumann Three Violin Sonatas Christian Tetzlaff vn Lars Vogt pf Ondine F ODE1205-2 (70’ • DDD) Anyone familiar with Christian Tetzlaff’s Gramophone Award-winning recording of Schumann’s piano trios (EMI, 7/11) will not be surprised to hear that this is every bit as compelling. There’s been a change of incumbent on the piano stool, with Leif Ove Andsnes now replaced by Lars Vogt, but the results are every bit as revelatory and I’d be surprised if it’s not a strong contender in the 2014 Awards. These three sonatas have, historically, tended to be lumped together with other late works under the ‘composer’s failing powers’ umbrella. More and more that crass pigeonholing is being called into question and it’s performances such as these that are doing that. So is there any justification in the notion that this is not top-drawer Schumann? In the case of the first two sonatas, I’d say absolutely not. In fact, not only do they abound in vivacity and emotional power but structurally they are tautly written and innovative in their thinking. And Tetzlaff, more than any other violinist around today, is utterly attuned to 4 GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 Schumann’s idiom in these later works: the mercurial changes of mood are conveyed as if they’re the most natural thing in the world, with none of the clumpy over-accentuation or exaggeration that can give Schumann’s sometimes obsessive rhythms a bad name. Yet neither is the drama ever underplayed. Quite the reverse, in fact: all three pieces were written at white heat (even by Schumann’s standards) and that energy of the creative process is truly brought to life here. If the Third Sonata remains more of an issue than the other two, its reputation has perhaps as much to do with its unorthodox history than the actual notes on the page. Its slow movement and finale started out life as part of a composite F‑A‑E Sonata written for the great Joseph Joachim, with the other contributions coming from Brahms and Albert Dietrich. Schumann very shortly after added two more movements to this sonata, to which Joachim responded enthusiastically and which Clara Schumann got as far as rehearsing with Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, the violinist who’d given the private premieres of the First and Second Sonatas. Despite the apparent approval of both Schumann’s wife and friend, the two of them prevented the publication of the piece and it had to wait until a century after the composer’s death to make it – finally – into print. What’s special about the reading from Tetzlaff and Vogt is that they’ve truly considered it in the light of the Second Sonata, in which Schumann’s metronome markings indicate that apparently lively tempi are actually not that fast. They make an utterly convincing and absorbing case for it, embracing the drama of the deeply unnerving opening movement, imbuing it with real rhetorical power, while in the finale Vogt makes the filigree piano-writing sound effortless – which is no mean achievement. Their understanding not just of the innovative qualities of these pieces but also Schumann’s borrowing from the past to create something new is another pleasure. And by past, I mean Bach in particular. The Second Sonata is suffused with the spirit and sometimes the letter of the elder composer, not only in the Ziemlich langsam introduction but also in the sublime slow movement, which is a set of variations based on a chorale that Bach used in a Christmas cantata, No 91, and which Mendelssohn also quotes in the finale of his C minor Piano Trio, written just a handful of years before Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from gramophone.co.uk
page 5
this work. Tetzlaff’s own understanding of Bach is a significant factor (just recall that glorious set of the Sonatas and Partitas he recorded a few years back – Hänssler, 8/07) and the first variation, now bowed, with a trickling piano accompaniment, has you holding your breath with wonder at the delicacy and apparent simplicity of it all. In the Allegretto middle movement of the First Sonata, the players superbly convey the fragility of the writing, the fleeting hints of happiness all too easily overcome by a doleful sadness. But it’s not just in the more delicate moments that these players impress so much. The effect of the opening of the first movement of No 1 is of a spontaneously wrought nervosity but listen a little more closely and you become aware of the myriad colours and subtle phrasing at play here. And in the Second Sonata, the reiterated rhythms of the second movement are high-octane but they also have a sense of yearning, as if reaching out for something not quite graspable. This, quite simply, wipes the floor with the competition. If you have the slightest interest in Schumann’s chamber music, add it to your shelves. RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR January Editor’s Choices J ANDERSON Orchestral Works LPO / Vladimir Jurowski, Ryan Wigglesworth LPO M LPO0074 ‘Neither effete nor vulgar, this might just be the new music you’ve been waiting for, its wow-factor surface fluency only part of the story.’ GRIEG. PROKOFIEV Piano Concertos Nikolai Lugansky pf DSO Berlin / Kent Nagano Ambroisie F AM210 ‘In the Prokofiev, Lugansky is on home ground and his performance blazes with conviction, a propulsion and energy complemented with an innate sense of poetry.’ PROKOFIEV. STRAVINSKY Violin Concertos Patricia Kopatchinskaja vn LPO / Jurowski Naïve F V5352 ‘Kopatchinskaja makes use of a remarkable range of bow strokes and tonal colourings to give each episode its own vivid identity.’ SAINT-SAËNS Concertos Renaud Capuçon vn Gautier Capuçon vc Radio France PO / Lionel Bringuier Erato F 934134-2 ‘An intimate dialogic quality comes through in Renaud and Gautier Capuçon’s beautifully modulated playing.’ ‘THE LARK ASCENDING’ Tasmin Little vn BBC PO / Sir Andrew Davis Chandos F CHAN10796 ‘Tasmin Little, an acknowledged standardbearer for, and specialist in, British music, gives us a feast of works for violin and orchestra.’ ‘SONNERIE & OTHER PORTRAITS’ Fantasticus Resonus M D RES10122 ‘The performances of Fantasticus are confident, stylish, beautifully articulated and convey a sense of genuine rapport – a most delightful recital of early-18th-century French Baroque chamber music.’ I B E R T A Z Z I A I O R G : G P H O T O G R A P H Y Christian Tetzlaff records Schumann in Bremen MIKHAIL PLETNEV ‘Pletnev in Person’ Mikhail Pletnev pf Onyx M ONYX4110 ‘Mikhail Pletnev continually searches for what he senses has not been set down, offering the kind of musicianship that makes the odd foible irrelevant, even meaningless.’ gramophone.co.uk Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from ‘BACH INSPIRATIONS’ Hannes Minnaar pf Cobra F COBRA0038 ‘The recorded piano sound is a real pleasure to hear; the programme is artfully conceived; and lastly, every single performance by this 28-year-old Dutch pianist is out of the top drawer.’ VERDI Simon Boccanegra Sols; Vienna SO / Massimo Zanetti Decca F b 478 5354DHO2 ‘This new set has Thomas Hampson and Joseph Calleja in performances that don’t just measure up to the recorded history but shine different kinds of light on the opera.’ GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 5

Page Text

View plaintext

RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR

January

‘Christian Tetzlaff, more than any other violinist around today, is utterly attuned to Schumann’s idiom in these later works’

Harriet Smith celebrates a new benchmark in recordings of Schumann’s three violin sonatas

Schumann Three Violin Sonatas Christian Tetzlaff vn Lars Vogt pf Ondine F ODE1205-2 (70’ • DDD)

Anyone familiar with Christian Tetzlaff’s Gramophone Award-winning recording of Schumann’s piano trios (EMI, 7/11) will not be surprised to hear that this is every bit as compelling. There’s been a change of incumbent on the piano stool, with Leif Ove Andsnes now replaced by Lars Vogt, but the results are every bit as revelatory and I’d be surprised if it’s not a strong contender in the 2014 Awards.

These three sonatas have, historically, tended to be lumped together with other late works under the ‘composer’s failing powers’ umbrella. More and more that crass pigeonholing is being called into question and it’s performances such as these that are doing that. So is there any justification in the notion that this is not top-drawer Schumann? In the case of the first two sonatas, I’d say absolutely not. In fact, not only do they abound in vivacity and emotional power but structurally they are tautly written and innovative in their thinking. And Tetzlaff, more than any other violinist around today, is utterly attuned to

4 GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014

Schumann’s idiom in these later works: the mercurial changes of mood are conveyed as if they’re the most natural thing in the world, with none of the clumpy over-accentuation or exaggeration that can give Schumann’s sometimes obsessive rhythms a bad name. Yet neither is the drama ever underplayed. Quite the reverse, in fact: all three pieces were written at white heat (even by Schumann’s standards) and that energy of the creative process is truly brought to life here.

If the Third Sonata remains more of an issue than the other two, its reputation has perhaps as much to do with its unorthodox history than the actual notes on the page. Its slow movement and finale started out life as part of a composite F‑A‑E Sonata written for the great Joseph Joachim, with the other contributions coming from Brahms and Albert Dietrich. Schumann very shortly after added two more movements to this sonata, to which Joachim responded enthusiastically and which Clara Schumann got as far as rehearsing with Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, the violinist who’d given the private premieres of the First and Second Sonatas. Despite the apparent approval of both Schumann’s wife and friend, the two of them prevented the publication of the piece and it had to wait until a century after the composer’s death to make it – finally – into print. What’s special about the reading from Tetzlaff and Vogt is that they’ve truly considered it in the light of the Second Sonata, in which Schumann’s metronome markings indicate that apparently lively tempi are actually not that fast. They make an utterly convincing and absorbing case for it, embracing the drama of the deeply unnerving opening movement, imbuing it with real rhetorical power, while in the finale Vogt makes the filigree piano-writing sound effortless – which is no mean achievement.

Their understanding not just of the innovative qualities of these pieces but also Schumann’s borrowing from the past to create something new is another pleasure. And by past, I mean Bach in particular. The Second Sonata is suffused with the spirit and sometimes the letter of the elder composer, not only in the Ziemlich langsam introduction but also in the sublime slow movement, which is a set of variations based on a chorale that Bach used in a Christmas cantata, No 91, and which Mendelssohn also quotes in the finale of his C minor Piano Trio, written just a handful of years before

Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from gramophone.co.uk

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content