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 for £12.50 postage paid World-wide.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Musicweb Purchase button

 

Schubert and his Circle
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

Piano Sonata in C major, D840, "Reliquie" (1825) completed by Brian Newbould [43:50]
Thirteen Variations on an Theme of Anselm Hüttenbrenner, D576 (1817) [14:50]
Anselm HÜTTENBRENNER (1794-1868)

Piano Sonata in E major, Op.16 (1826) [18:26]
Franz SCHUBERT

Deutscher in C sharp minor, D643 [0:56]
Josef HÜTTENBRENNER (1796-1882)

Tanz der Furien [1:12]
Todd Crow (piano)
rec. 30-31 May 2006, Martel Recital Hall, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0065 [79:16]





While this release will be leapt upon by Schubert scholars the world over for Brian Newbould’s completion of Schubert’s D840 Sonata, my initial response was one of delight in both the quality of the playing and that of the recording.

Todd Crow has made acclaimed appearances in the US and Europe, but this is the first time I’ve encountered his name on CD, and his playing is well up with the rest in my rag-bag of Schubert piano sonatas collected over the years. These include the majestic Mitsuko Uchida, the live and vibrant Alfred Brendel and, in D840 the improbably eccentric Sviatoslav Richter, all on Philips. Crow is the equal to all-comers, and while there may be a touch more legato here and a shade more poetic expression there in some of the competitors, I admire Crow’s sense of drama in this ‘Relic’, and his unpretentious approach to some of Schubert’s scattier passages. He plays them as written, makes no apologies, and imposes no reverential aura of mystery where none is due.

One of the nice things about hearing the Sonata D840 in this completion is that we get to hear the third and fourth movements at all. Most pianists tend to stick to the 25 minutes or so of the completed first two movements, and so we rarely hear the extraordinary Menuetto or the final, deceptively titled Rondo. Brian Newbould has written the excellent booklet notes to this CD, and explains the problems and solutions to completing the unfinished fragments. Detailed technical arguments aside, the joins are as good as seamless. Newbould takes the reasonably safe route of re-hashing Schubert’s own material as much as possible by making the conclusion of the Menuetto a near palindrome of the first half, and this works very well indeed – straight through the Trio which Schubert did complete, and reprised according to the style of the day. The final Rondo gives a more open problem, finishing after only 300 bars in a swift 2/4 movement, and then leaving the question as to how long to go on: the further one goes, the less there is of original Schubert, but maintaining Schubertian proportions means a certain amount of substance, otherwise you are left with a truncated and malformed musical morsel. Several of Schubert’s other sonatas are also unfinished, but break off just after the end of the development, leaving just the recapitulation, which autograph manuscripts and comparison with completed works show would have differed little from the original exposition. Cutting the repeat of the first section in performance helps, but Newbould has still had to add more than 6 minutes of music. His contribution starts at 4:12, and the total movement timing is 10:52. I’m sure there will be arguments for and against, and I read with interest the opinion of Paul Badura-Skoda in the 1979 Henle edition, that "Schubert’s self-criticism ought to be respected, and this movement should be left out of public performances." My unscholarly opinion is that it sounds pretty good, and can now be left in.

The other main Schubert work on this disc is the Thirteen Variations on a Theme of Anselm Hüttenbrenner D576, the theme being taken from that composer’s String Quartet in E Op.1. Both the rhythm of the theme and its key, A minor, are shared by the famous slow movement in Beethoven’s seventh symphony, and the conjecture is that this might have been Schubert’s way of expressing his affection for that work without resorting to direct reference and overt flattery. In any case, this is a fascinating set of variations which explores a wide variety of pianistic and musical textures and contrasts.

The circle which is referred to in the title of this disc is that of the brothers Hüttenbrenner, Anselm and Josef. They were natives of Graz and friends of Schubert, the younger, Josef, furthering his interests by acting as an intermediary on Schubert’s behalf with publishers and promoters, also writing piano duet transcriptions of some of his orchestral works. Anselm Hüttenbrenner’s Sonata in E major Op.16 is lighter in texture and content to most of Schubert’s sonatas, but has plenty of lyrical charm. There are some fascinating echoes of ‘almost’ Schubert such as the opening of the second Adagio movement, and an exciting moto perpetuo movement in the final Allegro assai. Josef Hüttenbrenner’s Tanz der Furien is great fun, exhibiting a whole washing list of stereotypical dramatic devices in order to conjure up a demonic atmosphere over its brief but energetic duration. The inclusion of Schubert’s Deutscher D643 dance is a logical pairing, since both works appear in a fascinating manuscript on which both works appear on either side of the paper in the composers’ own respective handwriting.

While the D840 Sonata and its completion is the main attraction for this release, none of the other works are mere makeweights, and both of the Hüttenbrenner works are given their first recordings here. That we should also be given such rich rewards in terms of performance and recording is a bonus, and I would say that this release is a must for all genuine Schubert fans.

Dominy Clements

Comment received

In his review of Todd Crow's performance of the Brian Newbould completion, Dominy Clements doesn't mention that Martino Tirimo recorded his own completion of this work in his EMI series (which also includes completions of all the fragments). Tirimo boldly caps the piece off by bringing back the opening theme of the first movement. It would have been nice to read about the differences between the Newbould and Tirimo completions.

My view is that this skeletal finale is not up to the level of the magnificent opening two movements and it's easy to understand why Schubert gave up where he did. CDs like these allow the listener to make up his own mind.

Jonathan Zoob







 


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

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




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.