Schnabel’s
Schubert recordings have seldom been absent from the catalogues
and one can find transfers on any number of individual discs – French
EMI Références has a double set, HPC has a four disc set,
EMI in London has long been admired for its sets devoted
to the entire corpus of Schnabel’s recordings. Now it’s the
turn of Music & Arts and for this set they have enlisted
the work of Mark Obert-Thorn. Thorn is actively engaged on
a re-pitching programme – doubtless he always has – but it’s
certainly more noticeable now than ever before in his work
and this set benefits from his industry in this area. This
is certainly the most important feature of this new set.
I’ve compared his work with EMI’s and the results are certainly as
instructive as his work with some of Ferrier’s Deccas, which
he published on Naxos. He has in general stabilised and corrected
pitch problems that were present – to a greater or lesser
degree – on earlier transfers. In the case of the Impromptus the
tempo and pitch tightening is apparent; in the G flat [No.3]
one can hear, in Obert-Thorn’s work, more passagework detail
than before and the pitch correction has meant that the tempo
has been accelerated from the very slightly sluggish tempo
we have hitherto been used to.
Turn to the Moments musicaux and one can hear what
precise pitching can do to a performance. No.1 in C is now
marvellously
quixotic a performance, more so than before in previous transfers,
and the open-air treble frequencies have, I would suggest,
radically altered our perception of Schnabel’s playing of
it.
It’s a similar aural story when one turns to the Sonatas. The familiar
teak heavy sonority of his playing of the Andantino of D959
has here been - I won’t say replaced but – modified into
a slightly lighter touch; this, combined with retention of
upper frequency hiss, means that the sound is freer in the
treble. D960 reveals another advantage in M & A’s work – which
is the rather greater immediacy of sound in the new transfers.
In previous EMI transfers there has invariably been a degree
of opacity that has come between the listener and the music
making. There’s less in it as regards tonal matters in the
middle frequencies but once again a revealing openness at
the top is a benefit of the new transfer.
As regards the lieder nothing much will resolve the question
of Theresa Behr-Schnabel’s voice but the pitch tightening is audible
though here less intense – the resultant extra surface noise
- these sides are certainly quite a deal noisier than the
EMI counterparts - may disturb some but shouldn’t worry the
majority. The effect of openness is welcome.
These are a few thoughts regarding the transfers and they
will be the most important as regards purchasers. All these
sides
have passed into the lexicon of recorded history so only
a few words will be necessary from me. I seldom argue with
Harris Goldsmith’s liner notes but I tilt my lance at him
with regard to his dismissive jibe of the Pro Arte Quartet’s “simpering” portamenti.
One’s man simper is another man’s affection and I’m happy
enough with their Franco-Belgian take on the Trout. Light
hearted and airily textured with a leisurely Scherzo is how
I’d characterise it. Maybe Goldsmith objects to the Andantino’s
scoops but the trills are crisper than crisp and a delight.
Schnabel’s wife Thérèse had always shown profound musicality on disc
but by 1932 the voice was becoming frayed and unsteady; there
are registral breaks galore and she simply doesn’t have the
voice for a song such as Gruppe aus dem Tartarus. Notwithstanding
the opportunity to hear Schnabel as an accompanist these
are imperfect documents of a powerful artist who, at only
fifty-six, was yet well past her prime.
The recordings Schnabel made with his son Karl Ulrich are
full of splendid tonal variety and powerful sonority and
real warmth.
There’s a witty diminuendo in the G minor March and a really
knowing and successful approach to its companion in B minor
where the clipped, détaché phrasing is contrasted with a
languorous relaxation.
The Sonata recordings are doubtless too well known to need
much ink spilling though one notices again how rhythmically
unsteady
Schnabel becomes in the opening Allegro vivace of D850. As
indeed one notices how slow the Andante sostenuto is of D960
and how rhythmically capricious he could be in Schubert’s
Scherzi (as indeed he is here).
All in all this is an impressive restoration of Schnabel’s
Schubert and I consider them the finest transfers of this
body of
work available. Notes by Goldsmith are predictably comprehensive
and personal (including his Pro Arte dig, for which he is
forgiven). Added to which the five CD box is priced as for
four.
Jonathan Woolf
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Artur Schanbel, piano, Karl Ulrich
Schnabel, piano *, Pro Arte