Part 2: The Schubert picks from Andrew C's list
[We're not even going to finish with Schubert in this post, let alone get to Schumann, so I'm afraid we're looking at a Part 3]
SCHUBERT: Fantasy in F minor for Piano Four Hands, D. 940
Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia, four-hand piano. Sony, recorded in The Maltings, Snape (Suffolk), England, June 21 & 25-26, 1984
by Ken
As I hope I made clear in last week's Part 1, I had (and have) a heap of professional respect for the Romanian-born pianist Radu Lupu, even though he was never a favorite pianist of mine. Which makes for a tricky issue of remembrance, but I was helped as well as intrigued by a list proposed by The Guardian's Andrew Clements, "Radu Lupu: Five key performances." Andrew C made some really interesting choices, and it turned out to be an interesting path to relistening to, and maybe rethinking about, the performer.
Last time we covered two of Andrew C's choices -- the two concertos: Mozart's No. 19 in F, K. 459, and Brahms's No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. The Mozart is a simply glorious performance, thanks in good part to the inspired contribution of David Zinman and the ardent young players of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. That was a great call, Andrew! The Brahms D minor he selected, a 1994 live performance from Tokyo with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the NHK Symphony, is nice enough, though I think anyone who knows this concerto, a work of deep brooding as well as considerable exaltation, may suspect that "nice" is not an epithet ideally applied to it.
A little foraging turned up an even nicer live performance, from 1996, with the Finnish Radio Symphony under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, but also a gripping, gorgeous, death-defying live performance from 1983, in which again the driving force appears to be the conductor, Klaus Tennstedt (with an orchestra he worked with so much, the London Philharmonic). In fairness, Lupu in key places rises -- in a way many other pianists wouldn't have been able to -- to the considerable challenges created by Tennstedt's relentlessly brave probing.
YOU KNOW, WE COULD HEAR THOSE PERFORMANCES AGAIN
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K. 459:
i. Allegro
ii. Allegretto
iii. Rondo: Allegro assai
[i. at 0:01; ii. at 12:41; iii. at 19:43] Radu Lupu, piano; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, David Zinman, cond. Live performance in the Sophiensaal, Munich, July 12, 1990 (Watch on YouTube)
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15:
i. Maestoso
ii. Adagio
iii. Rondo: Allegro non troppo
[i. at 0:01; ii. at 24:11; iii. at 38:29] Radu Lupu, piano; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. Live performance in the Royal Festival Hall, Apr. 7, 1983 (Listen on YouTube, audio only)
ON HIS LIST, IN ADDITION TO SCHUBERT'S D. 940 FANTASY,
ANDREW C HAS SCHUBERT'S SECOND SET OF 4 IMPROMPTUS
We're going to talk about "impromptu"-dom in a moment, but I thought first we might just hear Lupu play the D. 925 set (aka Op. posth. 142). And just for fun, I've tacked on the classic -- and very different -- 1950 recording by the legendary pianistic classicist Artur Schnabel.
SCHUBERT: Impromptus (4), D. 935 (Op. posth. 142):
No. 1 in F minor: Allegro moderato
No. 2 in A-flat: Allegretto
No. 3 in B-flat (Theme and Five Variations): Andante (Rosamunde)
No. 4 in F minor: Allegretto scherzando
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 11:42, 3. at 19:05; 4. at 30:32] Radu Lupu, piano. Melodiya, recorded live in Moscow, 2012
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 9:06; 3. at 16:23; 4. at 26:17] Artur Schnabel, piano. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London, June 8-9 & 12-13, 1950
SO WHAT IS AN IMPROMPTU? OR A FANTASY? (OR
A FANTASIA, FOR THAT MATTER? IS IT DIFFERENT?)
Well, in addition to the four-hand Schubert Fantasy in D minor we heard at the top of the post, we'd earlier heard ("Since in 'Radu Lupu (1945-2022), part 2' we'll be hearing both sets of Schubert impromptus, maybe this'll help get us in the mood") one specimen of a Schubert impromptu, the 83-year-old Vladimir Horowitz's riveting, possibly life-altering 1987 Vienna performance of No. 3 of the D. 899 set. I thought we might hear it again, set in some sort of context.
Oh wait, were you thinking we were going to have some sort of neat definition of what they are -- fantasies, fantasias, and impromptus? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. If a composer tells us we're getting a waltz or a polonaise or maybe even a scherzo, we maybe have some idea of what to expect, or at least some frame of reference. But just as was the case when we tried to puzzle out what this "intermezzo" might be which Brahms was so fond of, it mostly turns out to be whatever a particular composer wants it to mean. We noted, for example, that while a "ballade" might suggest to us a musical form that suggests the telling of a story, Brahms's Op. 5 Ballades embody a markedly different idea of musical story-telling from Chopin's -- and really, even in Chopin's case we kind of have to put together the four great ballades he eventually composed to formulate some idea of what he imagined the form to mean.
Adding to the "fantasy" perplex is the linguistic wrinkle that what to a German-speaker would be a Fantasie (or Phantasie), or to a French-speaker a fantaisie, to us English-speakers might be either a "fantasy" or a "fantasia," which to our ears sound like significantly different things, don't they? If I had identified the Schubert piano-four-hand work we heard at the top of this post as "Fantasia in D minor, D. 940," wouldn't you have imagined a noticeably different musical program? There probably wouldn't be any point seeking clarification from one of those German- or French-speakers, who probably wouldn't know what we're going on about with our fantasies and fantasias.
The rousing opening of Schubert's great Wanderer-Phantasie, played here by the Uzbekistan-born French pianist Mikhail Rudy (born 1953), recorded by EMI France c1987. Yes, "Phantasie" here, you'll note, though elsewhere you'll indeed find it as "Fantasie" -- either way, I never know whether to translate it as "Wanderer Fantasy" or "Wanderer Fantasia."
Anyway, without even consulting any reference sources, I'm going to posit these, er, definitions. (1) An impromptu is a short musical piece that, while fully written-out, has the character of an improvisation. (2) A fantasy (or fantasia, or Phantasie, or fantaisie) is a short musical piece that has the character of a fantasy-like burst of imagination. That said, before we're done we are going to take this one step further.
Having heard all eight of Schubert's piano impromptus, in two wildly different performance realizations, we're better positioned to imagine how Schubert might have defined the things. We will probably observe, as is generally observed, that the impromptus of Schubert's later set tend to be longer, more imaginatively developed, and more aware of each other, but this may mean nothing more than that the second set is a second set -- would we really expect Schubert to have written "four more of the same"?
Still, I'm sure we could benefit from some more detailed immersion in Schubert's ImpromptuWorld. Yeah, that's a thought. And to keep it simple, let's focus on the first set.
We want to get back to D. 899, No. 3, which is hardly a typical Schubert impromptu. Then again, there's no such thing as a "typical" Schubert impromptu. What we'll do is step back one number, to No. 2 of the D. 899 set (which, by the way, is possibly better-known as Op. 90, having actually been published in Schubert's lifetime; alas, the Op. 142 number for the D. 935 set does not indicate publication during the composer's lifetime -- "opus posthumous" numbers are assigned by publishers after a composer's unfortunate demise). Once back at D. 899, No. 3, we'll rehear the 1985 Horowitz recording, and this time give it a little company, including a subgroup of recordings that raise the key a half-step, from G-flat (a black-key-heavy key that makes possible Horowitz's "flat hands" approach, from which he's still able, remarkably, to generate that roof-raising yet still-golden-toned power) to G major, as in the arrangement by Hans von Bülow.
Finally we'll proceed to the final number of the set, D. 899, No. 4, which again we'll hear from several all-star pianists.
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in E-flat, D. 899, No. 2: Allegro
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Philips, recorded live in Sofia, February 1958
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in G-flat, D. 899, No. 3: Andante
Vladimir Horowitz, piano. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, May 1987 (Watch on YouTube)
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Apr. 21, 1958
Here are our "G major" versions (note too that Rubinstein in 1949 is hell-bent on fitting the whole thing on one 78 side) --
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, July 29, 1949
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Melodiya, recorded in Moscow, 1978
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in A-flat, D. 899, No. 4: Allegretto
Vladimir Horowitz, piano. DG, recorded in New York City, April 1985
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Studios C & D, Small Queen's Hall, London, Apr. 18, 1928
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, Dec. 11, 1950
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Apr. 21, 1958
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Nov. 19, 1961
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Philips, recorded live in Sofia, February 1958
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Praga, recorded live in Prague, Sept. 24, 1972
IS THIS FANTASY? FANTASIA? IMPROMPTU?
Judy Garland, vocal, from the 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, May 21, 1951 [from the performance we hear complete below]
I promise one last dip into the mysteries of musical "fantasy" and "impromptu," but I didn't promise that it would clarify anything. One thing we might have done in our quest for illlumination about "impromptu" as a musical form is harken unto the impromptu of Chopin, of which there are either three or four, depending on whether we count the last of them as Impromptu No. 4 or, to give it its specific name --
CHOPIN: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 66
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, May 21, 1951
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Mar. 11, 1957
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Dec. 10, 1961
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Carnegie Hall, Mar. 25, 1964
NEXT UP: We haven't quite finished with Schubert in our Radu Lupu remembrance, and then we still have to dip our toes into the world of Robert Schumann's musical imaginings.
NOW POSTED:
"[post under construction] Before we hear Schumann's Humoreske, might we wonder: What the heck is a 'Humoreske'?"
"Radu Lupu (1945-2022) [3]: We are going to hear more Lupu, but I'm afraid we're sticking awhile longer with the "opening sections" of Schumann's Humoreske"
[We're not even going to finish with Schubert in this post, let alone get to Schumann, so I'm afraid we're looking at a Part 3]
Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia, four-hand piano. Sony, recorded in The Maltings, Snape (Suffolk), England, June 21 & 25-26, 1984
by Ken
As I hope I made clear in last week's Part 1, I had (and have) a heap of professional respect for the Romanian-born pianist Radu Lupu, even though he was never a favorite pianist of mine. Which makes for a tricky issue of remembrance, but I was helped as well as intrigued by a list proposed by The Guardian's Andrew Clements, "Radu Lupu: Five key performances." Andrew C made some really interesting choices, and it turned out to be an interesting path to relistening to, and maybe rethinking about, the performer.
Last time we covered two of Andrew C's choices -- the two concertos: Mozart's No. 19 in F, K. 459, and Brahms's No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. The Mozart is a simply glorious performance, thanks in good part to the inspired contribution of David Zinman and the ardent young players of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. That was a great call, Andrew! The Brahms D minor he selected, a 1994 live performance from Tokyo with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the NHK Symphony, is nice enough, though I think anyone who knows this concerto, a work of deep brooding as well as considerable exaltation, may suspect that "nice" is not an epithet ideally applied to it.
A little foraging turned up an even nicer live performance, from 1996, with the Finnish Radio Symphony under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, but also a gripping, gorgeous, death-defying live performance from 1983, in which again the driving force appears to be the conductor, Klaus Tennstedt (with an orchestra he worked with so much, the London Philharmonic). In fairness, Lupu in key places rises -- in a way many other pianists wouldn't have been able to -- to the considerable challenges created by Tennstedt's relentlessly brave probing.
YOU KNOW, WE COULD HEAR THOSE PERFORMANCES AGAIN
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K. 459:
i. Allegro
ii. Allegretto
iii. Rondo: Allegro assai
[i. at 0:01; ii. at 12:41; iii. at 19:43] Radu Lupu, piano; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, David Zinman, cond. Live performance in the Sophiensaal, Munich, July 12, 1990 (Watch on YouTube)
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15:
i. Maestoso
ii. Adagio
iii. Rondo: Allegro non troppo
[i. at 0:01; ii. at 24:11; iii. at 38:29] Radu Lupu, piano; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. Live performance in the Royal Festival Hall, Apr. 7, 1983 (Listen on YouTube, audio only)
ON HIS LIST, IN ADDITION TO SCHUBERT'S D. 940 FANTASY,
ANDREW C HAS SCHUBERT'S SECOND SET OF 4 IMPROMPTUS
We're going to talk about "impromptu"-dom in a moment, but I thought first we might just hear Lupu play the D. 925 set (aka Op. posth. 142). And just for fun, I've tacked on the classic -- and very different -- 1950 recording by the legendary pianistic classicist Artur Schnabel.
SCHUBERT: Impromptus (4), D. 935 (Op. posth. 142):
No. 1 in F minor: Allegro moderato
No. 2 in A-flat: Allegretto
No. 3 in B-flat (Theme and Five Variations): Andante (Rosamunde)
No. 4 in F minor: Allegretto scherzando
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 11:42, 3. at 19:05; 4. at 30:32] Radu Lupu, piano. Melodiya, recorded live in Moscow, 2012
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 9:06; 3. at 16:23; 4. at 26:17] Artur Schnabel, piano. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London, June 8-9 & 12-13, 1950
WE COULD EVEN SLIP IN THE D. 899 IMPROMPTUS!
Schubert-impromptu-wise, Andrew C only included that 2012 live performance of Schubert's second set of impromptus, D. 935 (or Op. posth. 142). And once upon a time, lasting more than a century after the composer's death, even that set was hardly played, as was the case with so much of Schubert's large and important piano legacy, with especially little regard for the heaping helping of short-form works billed as Moments musicaux (Musical Moments and Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces, and so on -- including impromptus). Nowadays, however, it's hard to imagine any self-respecting pianists who don't have both sets of impromptus in their repertory. So I thought we might hear the earlier set as well. This time, for Lupu, we're going back to 1982, when he made studio recordings of both D. 899 and D. 935. Once again, we're shadowing his set with Schnabel's, as with his D. 935 recorded in June 1950.
SCHUBERT: Impromptus (4), D. 899 (Op. 90):
No. 1 in C minor: Allegro molto moderato
No. 2 in E-flat: Allegro
No. 3 in G-flat: Andante
No. 4 in A-flat: Allegretto
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 10:35, 3. at 15:11; 4. at 21:39] Radu Lupu, piano. Decca, recorded in Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Hamburg, June 1982
[1. at 0:01; 2. at 8:53; 3. at 13:03; 4. at 18:00] Artur Schnabel, piano. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London, June 6-9, 1950
SO WHAT IS AN IMPROMPTU? OR A FANTASY? (OR
A FANTASIA, FOR THAT MATTER? IS IT DIFFERENT?)
Well, in addition to the four-hand Schubert Fantasy in D minor we heard at the top of the post, we'd earlier heard ("Since in 'Radu Lupu (1945-2022), part 2' we'll be hearing both sets of Schubert impromptus, maybe this'll help get us in the mood") one specimen of a Schubert impromptu, the 83-year-old Vladimir Horowitz's riveting, possibly life-altering 1987 Vienna performance of No. 3 of the D. 899 set. I thought we might hear it again, set in some sort of context.
Oh wait, were you thinking we were going to have some sort of neat definition of what they are -- fantasies, fantasias, and impromptus? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. If a composer tells us we're getting a waltz or a polonaise or maybe even a scherzo, we maybe have some idea of what to expect, or at least some frame of reference. But just as was the case when we tried to puzzle out what this "intermezzo" might be which Brahms was so fond of, it mostly turns out to be whatever a particular composer wants it to mean. We noted, for example, that while a "ballade" might suggest to us a musical form that suggests the telling of a story, Brahms's Op. 5 Ballades embody a markedly different idea of musical story-telling from Chopin's -- and really, even in Chopin's case we kind of have to put together the four great ballades he eventually composed to formulate some idea of what he imagined the form to mean.
Adding to the "fantasy" perplex is the linguistic wrinkle that what to a German-speaker would be a Fantasie (or Phantasie), or to a French-speaker a fantaisie, to us English-speakers might be either a "fantasy" or a "fantasia," which to our ears sound like significantly different things, don't they? If I had identified the Schubert piano-four-hand work we heard at the top of this post as "Fantasia in D minor, D. 940," wouldn't you have imagined a noticeably different musical program? There probably wouldn't be any point seeking clarification from one of those German- or French-speakers, who probably wouldn't know what we're going on about with our fantasies and fantasias.
The rousing opening of Schubert's great Wanderer-Phantasie, played here by the Uzbekistan-born French pianist Mikhail Rudy (born 1953), recorded by EMI France c1987. Yes, "Phantasie" here, you'll note, though elsewhere you'll indeed find it as "Fantasie" -- either way, I never know whether to translate it as "Wanderer Fantasy" or "Wanderer Fantasia."
Anyway, without even consulting any reference sources, I'm going to posit these, er, definitions. (1) An impromptu is a short musical piece that, while fully written-out, has the character of an improvisation. (2) A fantasy (or fantasia, or Phantasie, or fantaisie) is a short musical piece that has the character of a fantasy-like burst of imagination. That said, before we're done we are going to take this one step further.
Having heard all eight of Schubert's piano impromptus, in two wildly different performance realizations, we're better positioned to imagine how Schubert might have defined the things. We will probably observe, as is generally observed, that the impromptus of Schubert's later set tend to be longer, more imaginatively developed, and more aware of each other, but this may mean nothing more than that the second set is a second set -- would we really expect Schubert to have written "four more of the same"?
Still, I'm sure we could benefit from some more detailed immersion in Schubert's ImpromptuWorld. Yeah, that's a thought. And to keep it simple, let's focus on the first set.
We want to get back to D. 899, No. 3, which is hardly a typical Schubert impromptu. Then again, there's no such thing as a "typical" Schubert impromptu. What we'll do is step back one number, to No. 2 of the D. 899 set (which, by the way, is possibly better-known as Op. 90, having actually been published in Schubert's lifetime; alas, the Op. 142 number for the D. 935 set does not indicate publication during the composer's lifetime -- "opus posthumous" numbers are assigned by publishers after a composer's unfortunate demise). Once back at D. 899, No. 3, we'll rehear the 1985 Horowitz recording, and this time give it a little company, including a subgroup of recordings that raise the key a half-step, from G-flat (a black-key-heavy key that makes possible Horowitz's "flat hands" approach, from which he's still able, remarkably, to generate that roof-raising yet still-golden-toned power) to G major, as in the arrangement by Hans von Bülow.
Finally we'll proceed to the final number of the set, D. 899, No. 4, which again we'll hear from several all-star pianists.
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in E-flat, D. 899, No. 2: Allegro
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Philips, recorded live in Sofia, February 1958
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in G-flat, D. 899, No. 3: Andante
Vladimir Horowitz, piano. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, May 1987 (Watch on YouTube)
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Apr. 21, 1958
Here are our "G major" versions (note too that Rubinstein in 1949 is hell-bent on fitting the whole thing on one 78 side) --
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, July 29, 1949
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Melodiya, recorded in Moscow, 1978
SCHUBERT: Impromptu in A-flat, D. 899, No. 4: Allegretto
Vladimir Horowitz, piano. DG, recorded in New York City, April 1985
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Studios C & D, Small Queen's Hall, London, Apr. 18, 1928
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, Dec. 11, 1950
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Apr. 21, 1958
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Nov. 19, 1961
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Philips, recorded live in Sofia, February 1958
Sviatoslav Richter, piano. Praga, recorded live in Prague, Sept. 24, 1972
IS THIS FANTASY? FANTASIA? IMPROMPTU?
Judy Garland, vocal, from the 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, May 21, 1951 [from the performance we hear complete below]
I promise one last dip into the mysteries of musical "fantasy" and "impromptu," but I didn't promise that it would clarify anything. One thing we might have done in our quest for illlumination about "impromptu" as a musical form is harken unto the impromptu of Chopin, of which there are either three or four, depending on whether we count the last of them as Impromptu No. 4 or, to give it its specific name --
CHOPIN: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 66
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in RCA Studios, Hollywood, May 21, 1951
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Manhattan Center, New York City, Mar. 11, 1957
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, Dec. 10, 1961
Arthur Rubinstein, piano. RCA, recorded in Carnegie Hall, Mar. 25, 1964
NEXT UP: We haven't quite finished with Schubert in our Radu Lupu remembrance, and then we still have to dip our toes into the world of Robert Schumann's musical imaginings.
NOW POSTED:
"[post under construction] Before we hear Schumann's Humoreske, might we wonder: What the heck is a 'Humoreske'?"
"Radu Lupu (1945-2022) [3]: We are going to hear more Lupu, but I'm afraid we're sticking awhile longer with the "opening sections" of Schumann's Humoreske"
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