SCHUBERT. Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845 Piano Sonata in B flat, D Wilhelm Kempff

Transcription

1 Eloq uence SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845 Piano Sonata in B flat, D. 960 Wilhelm Kempff

2 FRANZ SCHUBERT ( ) Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D I Moderato II Andante, poco mosso III Scherzo. Allegro vivace Trio. Un poco più lento IV Rondo. Allegro vivace 5 01 Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D I Molto moderato II Andante sostenuto III Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza IV Allegro ma non troppo 7 46 Wilhelm Kempff, piano Total timing: 70 45

3 The story goes that someone suggested to Sergei Rachmaninov that he add some Schubert piano sonatas to his repertoire in anticipation of the 1928 centennial of the composer s death. Rachmaninov replied Schubert wrote sonatas? An apocrophal anecdote, perhaps, but plausible, for Schubert s sonatas generally were neglected by nineteeth century audiences, pianists and critics, only to gradually find their way into the twentieth century piano repertoire, starting, for all intents and purposes, with the advocacy of Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann. Yet the two sonatas Wilhelm Kempff recorded for Decca in the early 1950s (he eventually would survey the whole cycle in stereo for Deutsche Grammophon) attracted attention almost from their first appearance in print. Dating from the spring of 1825, and dedicated to Beethoven s pupil and patron Archduke Rudolf, the D. 845 Sonata (the third of his three in A minor), was Schubert s first to be published, and the largest in scale and scope that Schubert had composed up to that time. It scored immediate acclaim. A March 1826 write-up in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung accurately described the music as a sonata that moved so freely and originally within its parameters, and sometimes so boldly and oddly, that it could well have been titled a Fantasy. Schubert declaims the first movement s dark and lyrical opening theme in unison octaves a favourite device of his. Loud chords and sudden silences enhance the drama, while the long and harmonically far-reaching development section and drawn-out climax embrace the piano s full registral and dynamic compass. A lovely two-section theme provides that basis for the second movement Andante, a set of variations that counts among Schubert s most inspired in this form. Virtuosic runs, embellishments and filigree grow increasingly elaborate as the variations progess, and wind down a contemplative conclusion that may remind listeners of the serenity and repose that Beethoven evokes in his Op. 111 sonata s final pages. While this quality also informs the Scherzo s trio, the outer section s syncopated accents and slight rhythmic displacements are guaranteed to keep listeners on their toes, if not completely off-balance! And while a more easily discernable pulse governs the perpetual motion finale, the numbers of bars per phrase defy any notion of fourquareness, not even when Schubert introduces a march-like motive that starts with four repeated notes. The A minor Sonata stood out among the long unavailable gems chosen by Alfred Brendel for the Kempff volumes in Philips Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century series. When he is at his best he plays more beautifully than any of us, he told William Steinberg, and described Kempff as an Aeolian harp, ever ready to respond to whatever interesting wind blew his way. His mono recording favourably compares with the stereo remake in that the younger Kempff generally plays with greater freedom and flexibility, as well as superior technical security (the finale s more accurate and assured fingerwork, for example). The two movements encompass more tempo fluctuation and, as a consequence, extra breathing space for the phrases to ebb and flow. Furthermore, Decca s relatively distant, less intimate microphone placement conveys a wider dynamic range, plus more solidity and bite in loud passages. Even by Schubert s prolific standards, the last year of his life brought forth an extraordinary bumper crop of masterpieces, including the Mass in E flat, three piano duets (the Allegro D. 947, the Rondo D. 951 and the great F minor Fantasy), Drei Klavierstücke D. 946, the C major String Quintet, and the last three piano sonatas. It s a critical cliché to describe the B flat D. 960 Molto moderato s opening theme and its sundry manifestations throughout the movement as serene, and even more of a cliché to read the presence of the grim reaper into the low-lying trills. For the most part Kempff plays simply, underscoring Schubert s inspired harmonic juxtapositions and songful phrasing by means of touch, subtle shifting of balances within chords, and no more rubato than necessary. He does not observe the long exposition repeat with its abrupt, quirky first ending, but few pianists did back then (the repeat occurs in Kempff s stereo remake). The Andante sostenuto contains some of Schubert s most touchingly lyrical and desolately bleak non-vocal writing, usually at the same time. He does this by giving the melodic foregrounds and accompanimental backgrounds clear and distinct characters. On the one hand, we have an expansive main theme with an internal build worthy of the best lieder singers. On the other hand, the theme is surrounded by a steady, hypnotic, slow-moving ostinato accompaniment. Later on, gently insistent repeated-note bass lines provide the impetus for the right hand tunes to soar. In a recent master class, a well-known piano pedagogue astutely suggested that the student maintain the accompaniments with steady consistency, almost as a point of reference,

4 while allowing the melodic content wider expressive leverage. The teacher may well have played Kempff s recording to demonstrate this idea, or, if you will, this ideal. Kempff s sixth sense for pianistic light and shade illuminates the Scherzo s buoyant, texturally transparent qualities, where the repeated notes in the main theme relate to those in the first movement. The minor key Trio s off-beat bass notes add up to an unintentionally witty counterline, highlighted by Kempff s ever-so-subtle accentuations. The open-octave G-natural that launches the Rondo mirrors the aforementioned first movement trills foreboding mood, which quickly dissipates once the main theme establishes itself in the B-flat major home key. A lyrical theme supported by a busy, murmuring accompaniment wanders off in several possible directions before a minor key theme in loud chords quickly gives way to tumultuous descending scales, evoking those in Schubert s F minor Impromptu D. 935 No. 4. Towards the end, the first theme appears three times in succession, re-harmonised each time, while an upbeat, virtuosic coda brings the movement to a triumphant close. In contrast with today s bountiful D. 960 discography, Schubert s last sonata was a relative rarity on disc when this recording first appeared, and it met with critical enthusiasm. Out of many lovely things in (the) first movement, wrote the late and long-time Gramophone critic Alec Robertson, I will single out Kempff playing of the second tune (F sharp minor) in which he achieves a perfect balance between the tenor and treble registers, and his instinctive feeling for the magical music hovering between D minor and B flat major, which proceeds the recapitulation one of the supreme things in the whole of piano literature. Kempff s instincts, however, are informed by years of experience and living with Schubert s elusive idiom. As Bernard Holland perceptively wrote in a New York Times overview of Kempff s Schubert: Slight hesitations, smoothings of legato, the barest accentual nudge all bear the mark of a contemplative mind that rejects complication as a lower order of intelligence. One notices after a few hours of listening the reflection of decades, made to behave as if nothing had been reflected on at all. Jed Distler Recording location: Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK, November 1950 (D. 960), March 1953 (D. 845) Remastering: Audio Archiving Company, London, UK; Lennart Jeschke, Studio Export, Wunstorf, Germany; Digital Compact Disc Mastering, Sydney, Australia Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Cover image: Albert Lynch, Portrait de femme (1890) Art direction: Chilu Tong Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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