MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

CD REVIEW



Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Buy through MusicWeb from £14.30/15.10/15.60 postage paid.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Musicweb Purchase button

Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970)
The Complete Sonatas and Other Works for Piano.
Sonata Op. 66 [22:14]; Second Sonata [14:33]; Sonata III [17:15]; Sphinx Op. 63 [4:27]; Rainbow Trout [3:53]; Rondeau de Concert [5:30]; Ballad [6:52]; Victorian Waltz [3:34]
Michael Schäfer (piano).
rec. 28-29 April 2003, Studio 1, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Sonata op. 66, Sonata III, Rondeau de Concert, Ballad, Victorian Waltz), 8 March 2005, University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (Second Sonata, Sphinx, Rainbow Trout)
GENUIN GEN 85049 [78:19]


 


Recording the "The Complete Sonatas" of this or that composer is far from unusual. Sadly the claim to completeness is often based on insufficient research. Even before the acclaimed "Complete Bax Piano Sonatas" had been published half a year or so ago (Oehms), Michael Schäfer recorded a volume of Scott piano works, apparently unaware of the Leslie De’Ath venture (Dutton) in which the sonatas were issued only just before the Schäfer recordings were completed.

The first thing you notice with this Genuin disc is the omission of the early Sonata in D major Op. 17. This was never published during Scott’s lifetime and thus may have been thought to have been withdrawn by the composer.

So what exactly do we have on the Schäfer CD? We find the three full-size sonatas and five shorter pieces. Refreshingly the latter avoid the best-known Cyril Scott (Lotus-Land or Pierrot-Pierrette) but offer - initially to German listeners - compositions of considerable substance which afford a deeper insight into a composer who in Germany remained largely unknown until the present author’s contribution to the Lexikon des Klaviers (Laaber, 2006).

The famous Op. 66 sonata (1909) is performed with plenty of attention to nuance and, it seemed to me, more warmth than De’Ath. Dennis Hennig (Etcetera) has in comparison the disadvantage of a more metallic-sounding piano. Preferences between these alternative recordings depend on taste - though I must admit that I would like to know which version of the sonata was actually recorded – this is not conveyed in the Schäfer booklet notes.

The Second Sonata in one continuous movement (1932) displays, as does the first, more urgency than De’Ath’s version. And the mysterious beginning of Sonata III (1956) has an additional component of disquiet added to the vast harmonic and metrical range. This may however be more expressively displayed by De’Ath and Raphael Terroni - the latter in a BMS recording of 1981 sadly not yet reissued on CD. A comparison of the durations of the few recordings is telling:-
 
Schäfer

De’Ath

Hennig

Terroni

Sonata Op. 66

22:14

28:18

20:59
 

Second Sonata

14:33

18:27
   

Sonata III

17:15

18:17
 
26:00

After the substantial sonatas the five smaller pieces have been carefully chosen from Scott’s vast œuvre. The Egyptophile-impressionist Sphinx of 1907 is much more impressionist than with De’Ath. The famous 1916 Rainbow Trout in direct comparison with Scott’s own interpretation of 1928, reissued in vol. 1 of the Dutton series, is much more convincingly silvery-slippery. The 1918 neo-classicist Rondeau de Concert has much more legato than with De’Ath. A Ballad of 1920 has not yet been released by De’Ath. The late Victorian Waltz of 1963 is Scott’s last completed piano composition, an enchanting, "old-fashioned" miniature full of valedictory feelings.

Schäfer, a professor at the Munich Conservatoire, proves with this collection, and with the last piece as well as with much else on this CD, to be completely au fait with Scott’s compositional style; more, his interpretations are full of charm and grace. At times he is perhaps somewhat less sharp-edged than some, but this remains an excellent introduction to the music of Scott.

The honestly recorded sound from Bavarian Radio and acceptable booklet notes complete a strongly recommendable CD.


Jürgen Schaarwächter

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.