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PACM036:
Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor, D821 - Schubert
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Emanuel
Feuermann, cello
Gerald Moore, pianoforte
Recorded
in 1937, released as UK Columbia LX717-9
Matrix numbers: CAX8009-8013, all first takes
Download ID: 213476, 434943
(Duration
19'55")
Play
sample movement:
Although
Schubert wrote this sonata for Arpeggione and Piano, it is more
usually played by cello and piano, and indeed on the discs from which
this recording stems it is referred to as a Sonata for Cello and Piano.
The Arpeggione was a curious instrument which didn't catch on. Developed
in 1823 by the Viennese guitar luthier Johann Georg Staufer as a kind
of upright bowed guitar, it had six strings, tuned as a guitar is, and
was a fretted instrument.
Despite
Schubert's use of it the following year, 1824, in this composition, written
for an enthusiastic arpeggione player, Vincenz Schuster (who also wrote
the only method book for the instrument in 1825), the use of the instrument
never caught on and after about 10 years it had been largely abandoned.
(We've used a photograph of an Arpeggione on our CD cover.)
Thus in
the hands of Feuermann, with his subtle use of glissandi, the sonata is
very much a piece for cello rather than a fretted arpeggione. His accompanist
in this recording, Gerald Moore, noted of Feuermann: "He had perfect
intonation, utmost clarity of articulation, beauty of tone quality and
mastery of rhythm. All these attributes were the back-bone of his art.
From these foundations his imagination ranged freely. His playing - like
the man himself - was in perfect taste , though possessed of a fiery temperament,
it was held in control and he gave the impression of a most relaxed individual.
As a man Feuermann was very well balanced, a delightful companion with
thought and kindness for others."
Take a
listen to the marvellous third movement in our sample here and you can't
help but delight in the playing of Feuermann, and agree with Moore's comments.
This is a truly wonderful recording!
The original
discs - clean UK Columbia 78s - included a single side of Chopin, an adaptation
of his Nocturne in E flat Op. 9 No. 2, with Feuermann and an unnamed pianist,
which is available from our Shorter
Pieces section.
REVIEW
OF:Schubert
"Arpeggione" Sonata (Moore, 1937) and
Brahms: Cello Sonata #1 (van der Pas, 1934)
Emanuel
Feuermann (1902-1942) was almost universally recognized
during his brief lifetime as an unrivaled master of the cello.
Artur Rubinstein said "Feuermann became for me the greatest
cellist of all time". Jascha Heifetz accepted him as
the first cellist worthy of serious collaboration, and would
not play with another for nine years after his death. He was
the cellist of choice for Toscanini, who described him as
"the greatest" and said that "there is no one
after him".
No
cellist, not Casals, not Rostropovich, conveys for me the
fire, the passion, the lyricism and the virtuosity of Feuermann.
To me, his ur-recording is the great Brahms Double Concerto
with Heifetz and Ormandy (1939) which has been my favorite
for half a century. He died from easily preventable complications
of a very minor surgery at age 39. His recordings are not
many.
What
is the nature of his greatness? It is not unlike that of Heifetz
or Toscanini. Impeccable command and virtuosity go without
saying. It is the underlying intensity--whether forte or piano
or lyrical or martial, there is always the intensity of a
musical life and sensibility that is always probing. There
is no routine; every phrase, every note is informed with a
vital spirit. Every note is pregnant with the next. Nothing
is routine; nothing is repeated the same way. And there is
the plangent tone--a bit thin and nervous compared to Rostropovich
or Casals--that can either caress or whiplash, depending on
the musical requirement. And how does one hear soft playing
with such expression and underlying tension?
Suffice
it to say that Feuermann knows how to be playful and dance
as he does in the Schubert "Arpeggione" sonata.
He opens the sonata with a light, somewhat sec tone, which
announces that this is an early, light romantic work and not
the C Major Quintet. He does not make heavy weather of the
development, but keeps its dancing. Moore, perhaps the greatest
accompanist who ever lived, is one with him. Feuermann's tone
is a bit richer in the the lovely second movement, but he
does not lean on the themes to exaggerate their importance.
In the third movement, we are back to loose-limbed, insouciant
joy.
In
the Brahms, Feuermann begins the first theme a bit
subdued with a mezzo tone that, without moving to doubleforte,
conveys struggle and anxiety. There are flashes of rebellion
but mood is more melancholy than tragic or angry. The tone
is much brightened for the second movement, but there is still
a hint of sadness hanging over it all. The articulatulation
is very precise and the lovely sinuous second theme is played
without the romantic afflatus that Rostropovich or Piatiagorsky
brings to it. Feuerman is supreme in the knotty, contrapuntal
third movement. He is everywhere at once commanding things.
He makes the most of the lyric episodes to leaven this, one
of Brahms' toughest textures.
The
sound, while somewhat unresonant, is infinitely adequate to
to convey the Fireman's gold.
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