Volume 26 Issue 6 - March and April 2021

Schiff’s performance of the Cello Sonata in
A Major Op.69 on YouTube – his recordings
of the five sonatas seemingly having fallen
out of the catalogue – and to a brand new
CD with the Beethoven Triple Concerto in C
Major Op.56 featuring Isabelle Faust, Jean-
Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov and
the Freiburger Barockorchester, conducted
by Pablo Heras-Casado (Harmonia Mundi
HMM902419 store.harmoniamundi.com). It had been several decades
since I last listened to the “Triple” and it was a real treat to have occasion
to revisit it, especially played by such amazing performers. The
balance between the soloists and period orchestra (presumably
supplemented from its Baroque size to the forces Beethoven would
have had available at the time) is perfect, and the simpatico
communion between violin, cello and piano is palpable. The album
also includes a surprisingly full-bodied rendering of Beethoven’s
piano trio arrangement of the Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op.36.
Quite a feast for the ears!
Piano trios seem to be a recurring theme
this month and next on the agenda is a new
recording of Eduard Steuermann’s 1932
arrangement of Schoenberg’s Verklärte
Nacht Op.4 with Trio Karénine on La
Nuit Transfiguré (Mirare MIR554 mirare.
fr/catalogue). Originally composed for
string sextet in 1899, Verklärte Nacht
(Transfigured Night) is considered
Schoenberg’s first important work, and incidentally it was Pierre
Boulez’s Domaine Musical recording of the original version that
provided my introduction to the music of this icon of the 20th
century. Predating his development of the 12-tone system, this piece
is a dense example of Expressionist art with the dramatic, and sometimes
lugubrious, string textures full of Romantic angst. Although
a purely instrumental work, it explores – verse by verse – a poem
by Richard Dehmel in which a woman is walking with her lover,
but is pregnant by another man. She is worried about the ramifications,
but ultimately the beauty of the evening and the intensity of
their love triumph. This tone poem departs from the tradition established
by Liszt and later perfected by Richard Strauss, in that it is
for chamber forces, not full orchestra. Trio Karénine’s performance
is intense and convincing, with the “orchestral” piano part
conceived by Steuermann ably filling in for the missing strings.
The CD also includes Tristia, Liszt’s 1880 trio arrangement of the
solo piano work, Vallée d’Obermann S. 723c, and Schumann’s Six
Studies in Canonic Form for pedal piano, Op.56 as transcribed by
Theodor Kirchner.
Steuermann’s is not the only arrangement of
Transfigured Night; Schoenberg himself
expanded it for string orchestra including
contrabass (adding to the abovementioned
lugubriousness) in 1917, and again for similar
forces in 1943, by which time the Austrian
composer had moved to America. Verklärte
Nacht, a new album from Chandos featuring
the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the
direction of Edward Gardner (CHSA 5243 naxosdirect.com/search/
chsa+5243), includes this last arrangement, plus German orchestral
songs by Franz Lehár, Oskar Fried and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Lehár’s Fieber (Fever) is the dramatic story of a young officer in hospital
after suffering wounds on the battlefield early in WWI, as was the case
of the composer’s younger brother Anton. It is markedly different from
the music of The Merry Widow and other operettas for which Lehár is
renowned, although momentary hints of the waltz composer peek
through. Fried’s 1901 Verklärte Nacht is based on the same text that
inspired Schoenberg, in this instance using Dehmel’s words, sung by
mezzo-soprano (Christine Rice) and tenor (Stuart Skelton). It is a quasioperatic
scene in post-Wagnerian style, of which Fried said in later
years: “I myself find it too beautiful; I am drowning in this music.”
Korngold composed his four Lieder des Abschieds (Songs of Farewell) in
1920- 21, soon after his opera Die tote Stadt, when he was still in
Vienna. It is the most tonal work on offer here (Fried’s self-assessment
notwithstanding), gorgeously sung by Skelton, whose full heldentenor
is impressive throughout the vocal works on the disc, well matched by
Rice in the Fried.
Speaking of arrangements, or in this case
adaptations, regular readers will know that I
am enamoured of Schubert’s Winterreise in
just about any shape or form. Other than
Bach’s Goldberg Variations I don’t know of
any work that has been interpreted in so
many ways, for so many instruments.
Perhaps the most unusual version I had
encountered until now was Philippe Sly and Le Chimera Project’s
Klezmer/Roma rendition recorded for Analekta and later performed
live for Toronto audiences at Koerner Hall in 2020, shortly before the
lockdown. This has now been surpassed by a new disc from the
Asambura-Ensemble, founded in Hannover in 2013 to interpret classical
music in dialogue with non-European perspectives. Fremd bin
ich Eingezogen (Decurio DEC-004 decur.io) is subtitled Winterreise
interkulturell and it connects Schubert with Persian poems and music
in an intriguing mélange that provides a multicultural gloss on the
original text and accompaniment. The vocal soloists are Yannick
Spanier (German) and Mehdi Saie (Persian), and the orchestration is a
What we're listening to this month:
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Very Well & Good
Richard Whiteman
Successfully combines the
directness and groove of swinging
jazz with the lyricism and textural
beauty found in classical music and
the music of Bill Evans.
Scintillating Beauty
Cat Toren
Pianist/composer Cat Toren conjures
music as healing force and hope
for the future on the second album
by her exploratory quintet HUMAN
KIND. "Scintillating Beauty" evokes
60s spiritual jazz, sound healing
techniques and positive activism.
An Atlas of Time
Wang Lu
An Atlas of Time, Lu's second
recording on New Focus,
integrates Eastern and Western
influences into a cartography of
her own personal memory.
thewholenote.com March and April 2021 | 29