Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (Fantasy Pieces)

Late in the 1840s, Schumann entered a chamber music phase. It was, it is said, motivated partly by financial reasons – creating a body of chamber works that could be played by talented amateurs in their own homes. Many of the works on this disc date from 1849. Significantly, for collectors, one of these – the Andante and Variations – receives its first release on CD and marks Vladimir Ashkenazy’s first recording of chamber music for Decca. The same sessions also included duo piano recordings with Malcolm Frager, from which the Study in Canon Form emanates. Other notable duo collaborations on this disc include Rostropovich and Britten (Fünf Stücke im Volkston), Holliger and Brendel (Drei Romanzen, Abendlied) and Ashkenazy with Tuckwell in the 1974 (Adagio and Allegro) and with Franklin Cohen in 1990 (Fantasiestücke).

On this Hybrid SACD of music for clarinet and piano, the piano parts have been arranged for strings by Geert van Keulen. The well-known pieces given this unusual treatment are Brahms’ Sonatas, opus 120 Nos. 1 and 2, and Schumann’s Fantasistucke, opus 73. The performers are the soloist Arno Piters and members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam. Born in 1980, Arno Piters studied clarinet with Jan Cober and Willem van der Vuurst at the Maastricht Conservatory, where he earned an honours diploma. He then went on to study with George Pieterson at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and was again awarded an honours diploma. Piters has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra, where he performed under such conductors as Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink and Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has made solo appearances with the Residentie Orchestra and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, among others.

In 1849 Schumann, like Debussy and Poulenc before him, spent some time writing music for wind instruments. This album celebrates the complete compositions of these works from 1849.

Two of today's most passionate and inspirational artists join forces in the recital programme that brought audiences to their feet at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad in Summer 2011. The chemistry between Hélène Grimaud and Sol Gabetta left critics and audiences nothing short of euphoric and this first duo recording captures the revelatory magic of their collaboration

The album reprises the same programme the duo performed in Gstaad:

Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Johannes Brahms Sonata for Cello and Piano No.1 in E minor and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano.

Hélène’s recordings have been best-sellers on the Yellow Label with more than 800,000 units sold altogether to date. Sol is also a best-selling, chart-storming artist, who is regarded as one of the great cellists of our day.

Quirine Viersen, one of Holland’s foremost cellists, and Silke Avenhaus are musical partners already for many years, forming a close unity of musical thought and emotion. This recording dates from the beginning of their partnership and offers passionate readings of Beethoven’s two late Cello Sonatas Op. 102, combined with the deeply romantic world of Schumann, in his Phantasiestücke and the fairylike Stücke im Volkston.

The combination of cello and piano has long been a popular choice among composers. Detailing a selection of works by two of the world’s greatest, this release celebrates one of music’s most enduring partnerships through showcasing some of the duo’s best literature.

The compilation covers works written towards the end of each composer’s life, and first to be presented are Beethoven’s Sonatas Op.102 Nos. 1 and 2. Completed in 1815 and therefore dating from the start of his late period, these self-contained compositions stand as the shortest and most concentrated of the composer’s duo sonatas – though the wealth of feeling that is exhibited throughout more than makes up for this. Next to be featured is Schumann’s delightful Fantasiestücke Op.73 – a set of small-scale pieces taking the style of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. They are followed by 5 Stücke im Volkston Op.102, completed in 1878 and similarly inspired by Lieder and folksong through their use of simple yet characteristic themes.

From the intensity of Beethoven’s sonatas to the affective expression of Schumann’s creations, this collection unites some of the most spiritual and original music in the cello and piano repertoire. Quirine Viersen and Silke Avenhaus offer an authoritative interpretation that brims with colour: a valuable addition to Brilliant Classics chamber music library.

Among Schumann’s inspired late chamber works is a collection of music for more unusual instruments, composed in a concentrated flurry of creativity between 1849 and 1853 and written specifically for particular players, and it is to these exquisite short works that the world-famous Nash Ensemble turns its impeccable collective musicianship.

While Schumann modelled his music specifically to the timbres of the instruments he wrote for—piano, violin, horn, clarinet and oboe—he also arranged these pieces for alternative instruments with an eye to maximizing sales. Here, however, the soloists from The Nash Ensemble present the works in their original scoring in what are bound to be definitive performances—the delicious Fantasiestücke for clarinet, and the fiery and lyrical Märchenbilder, which feature star British viola player Lawrence Power. Other delights include the Adagio and Allegro for horn, a brilliant showpiece, the Violin Sonata No 1, Drei Romanzen for oboe and piano and the Märchenerzählungen for clarinet, viola and piano.

Chandos signed Karen Geoghegan as an exclusive artist in 2007 following her appearance on BBC TV’s Classical Star programme. This is her fifth recording with the label, and the expressive maturity and sensitivity of her playing have quickly cemented her status as a rising star, Gramophone writing: ‘Name five internationally famous bassoon soloists. Archie Camden, Gwydion Brooke and, er, that’s it. Except I think we shall soon be adding the name of Karen Geoghegan to the roll call.’

On this disc, she is accompanied by Philip Edward Fisher in works by some of the greatest composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Schubert, Schumann, Spohr, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar. Yet, with a single exception, namely the Sonata in E flat by Gustav Schreck, none of the works recorded here were originally composed for the bassoon.

One of Rachmaninoff’s best-loved short pieces, the Vocalise was written for wordless voice and piano. Demonstrating the capacities of the voice as a pure instrument, this work is a prime example of the power of melody without the need for words. In this arrangement, the bassoon takes on the role of ‘wordless voice’, which shows off the instrument’s great lyrical qualities to perfection, as does Elgar’s Salut d’amour.

Schumann’s Fantasiestücke was originally composed for clarinet and piano, its three pieces played without a break, with each subsequent piece taking up and developing melodic ideas from the preceding one. The Sonata in A minor, D 821 by Schubert, which remained unpublished and unperformed for decades after his death, is an emotionally complex work, its moods moving from deep melancholy to excited ebullience.

Despite his love of the cello’s rich sonority and immense lyrical expressivity, Robert Schumann composed few works for that instrument, a situation frequently rectified, as here, by effective arrangements. Less well known, yet among her most successful compositions, are Clara Schumann’s exquisite Romances. A pupil of Rostropovich and winner of the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Third Tchaikovsky InternationalCompetition, Karine Georgian enjoys an international career as a performer and teacher. Dutch pianist Jan Willem Nelleke’s exceptional qualities as a duo partner have been widely recognised. “Everything Georgian plays is presented with the most succulent, glowing tone, the phrasing boundlessly ample.” Financial Times