Classical Music – musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

Schumann’s underrated piano chamber music beautifully played by the Trio Wanderer

Robert Schumann

I haven’t written very many entries on Schumann yet. That is not because I don’t like this composer.

In fact, his symphonies, typically either played by Szell, Gardiner, or more recently, Nézet-Seguin (that I really need to review here), Dausgaard (that I even mentioned in my 25 Essential Classical albums), or Rattle, are in very heavy rotation on my hifi.

I listen to his piano concerto much less frequently, just because I probably overplayed it in my youth. That said, going back to Lipatti’s legendary performance every once in a while is a true pleasure. For more modern performances, it is also worth going with Leif Ove Andsnes, or if you prefer a period piano, Alexander Melnikov.

His solo piano music gets even less frequently played here, which is a pity, as there are beautiful pieces like the Davidsbündlertänze, the Etudes Symphoniques, or Kreisleriana. I really don’t know why I don’t play them more often, maybe I should just actively seek them out more.

Now, when we get to Schumann’s chamber music, I must admit I barely played it until recently. I purchased the three piano trios in a very good version with Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, and Jean-Guihen Queyras, as they were included in their excellent recordings of the concertos for piano, violin, and cello. However, I mostly focused my attention to the orchestral works, not giving the chamber works enough attention.

My interest in Schumann’s chamber music grew when I recently purchased a reference version of Brahms’ piano quintet by the Artemis Quartet with Leif Ove Andsnes (not yet reviewed here), that also included Schumann’s piano quartet (in an equally exellent performance)

So when the following album was released recently, I was immediately very interested:

Schumann: Complete Trios / Piano Quartet / Piano Quintet – Trio Wanderer (Harmonia Mundi 2021)

Robert Schumann Complete PIano Trios PIano Quartet Piano Quintet Trio Wanderer Christophe Gaugué Catherine Montier Harmonia Mundi 2021

I already own an excellent box by this French trio, that consistently records very strong performances, of the complete Beethoven trios.

I really like these performances here as well. They are more polished that the somewhat rougher performances of the trios by Melnikov/Faust/Queyras mentioned above (the period instruments clearly make a difference), but there is beauty all along.

The piano quintet performance doesn’t get the brilliance of the above mentioned Artemis recording, but there is beautiful “singing” in the melodies everywhere.

I really don’t have a good reference for the piano quartet in my collection, so as with this entire review, take my comments here with a big grain of salt, but I really like what I hear as well.

Overall, a truly enjoyable box.

My rating: 4 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz)

A Review of CPE Bach’s Cembalo Concertos by Andreas Staier – Just Beautiful

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach, as it is rather well known, had a large family. A total of 6 sons. Most of them did some composing. Unfortunately, the only descendant of Bach that I personally find interesting is Carl Philipp Emanuel, often abbreviated as CPE (I’ve written a bit about Wilhelm Friedemann here).

CPE had a major influence on music, including on one of the greatest names ever, Mozart. Mozart did meet CPE, and reportedly has said about him “Er ist der Vater; wir sind die Bubn. Wer von uns was Rechts kann, hats von ihm gelernt.” (which roughly translates into “he (CPE) is the father, we are the children. Whoever of us know how to compose, has learned from him”).

CPE Bach in a way, musically speaking is the “missing link” between the Baroque period of JS Bach and Händel, and the Viennese classical period of Mozart and Haydn. In his music you still have some elements of the former, but much more points to the latter. I suggest you check out this nice Guardian article if you want to know more about the composer.

Andreas Staier

I’ve written several times about the German pianist and harpsichordist Andreas Staier. Most of the time I just love his recordings (e.g. Schubert’s Winterreise, Bach’s Clarinet Sonatas, or his great Diabelli variations). Occasionally I’m disappointed, particularly with his recording of the JS Bach keyboard concertos (see A Disappointment From Andreas Staier – How Can That Be?).

I was particularly disappointed in the JS Bach recording mentioned above as I just love this CPE bach recording I’m writing about here, so I had particularly high expectations.

CPE Bach: Six Harpsichord Concertos – Andreas Staier – Petra Müllejans – Freiburger Barockorchester (Harmonia Mundi 2011)

So what do you get? Sheer brilliance! Staier and the Freiburgers really put all their energy in making this music shine. And what beautiful music it is. I personally would put CPE Bach higher than Haydn in my personal appreciation.

This is really exicing and passionate playing, which will draw you in. This album deservedly received the Gramophone Award in its category in 2011 (interestingly, they put it under “baroque instrumental”, not sure I’d 100% agree).

Check it out!

My rating: 5 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prestoclassical)

Mozart’s Violin Concertos with Isabelle Faust – Highly Enjoyable

Happy New Year!

Dear readers, I hope many of you were able to have some days off during the holidays over the last weeks. I’d like to thank you again for your interest in my blog, and look forward to sharing more exciting music with you in 2017.

As always, I really appreciate any form of feedback. Do you like my articles? Let me know! Hate them, let me know as well! Any form of feedback is useful.

Mozart’s Violin Concertos

Let me start by saying that as much as I like Mozart, his violin concertos aren’t very high on my priority list. They are the works of a teenager, written between ages 16 and 20. That said, they are enjoyable, and at least one version of them should be in any classical music library.

But which one? In My Must-have Mozart Albums, I’ve already recommended Giuliano Carmignola’s great recording with the late Claudio Abbado and the Orchestra Mozart he founded (which unfortunately lost funding some time ago).

However, regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of Isabelle Faust (see here, or here), so when she released a recording of the complete Mozart concertos, I obviously had to check it out. Unfortunately, it took some months for reasons unknown to me for this to be available on Qobuz, my streaming provider (and I didn’t want to buy this blindly).Now Qobuz finally has it, so here comes my review.

Mozart: Violin Concertos – Isabelle Faust – Il Giardino Armonico (Harmonia Mundi 2016)

Mozart: Violin Concertos Isabelle Faust Il Giardino Armonico Giovanni Antonini Harmonia Mundi 2016 24/96

Not only you get Isabelle Faust here, as mentioned above one of my all-time favorite violinists, but you also get Giovanni Antonini with his Giardino Armonico. They have done countless excellent baroque albums in the last 30 years. More recently they moved up to the Viennese Classical period with Haydn, in their excellent Haydn2032 cycle (see my review of vol. 3 here), so Mozart is a logical next step.

So, how does it sound? Two words, transparency and energy! Antonini takes the same inspiring approach he uses to awaken Papa Haydn, and plays it with a lot of verve and swing. And even Faust, who can be a tiny bit intellectual in her approach at times, gets fully into the mood and goes with the flow, making this youthful music just highly enjoyable. I seriously wouldn’t know what to criticize on this recording. This really is on par with Carmignola, if not even slightly better.

In summary: highly recommended (all reviews I’ve seen vary between very good and outstanding, so I’m not really going against the consensus here).

My rating: 4 stars (full 5 star playing, but as mentioned above I don’t think Mozart’s violin concertos are truly essential, so one point off for repertoire).

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (HDTracks)