PAKM502:
Marta Felcman plays Piano Works by Robert Schumann
MP3
price
Marta
Felcman, piano Recorded
June, 2004, first released in 2006
Download ID: 250746
(Duration
58'19")
Faschingsschwank
aus Wien, Op. 26
Widmung
(arr. Liszt)
Sonata
No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11
Play
sample movement:
...one
of the most imaginative performances I've ever heard...
Peter Katin on Marta Felcman's Schumann
In 1839,
following a visit to Vienna, Schumann composed Faschingsschwank aus
Wien (Carnival Jest from Vienna). This is a musical depiction
of pre-Lenten carnival time in Vienna, which the composer referred to
as a "romantic theatrical presentation". The opening movement,
with its quotation from the Marseillaise the main jest, pokes fun at the
Austrian government's censors who had banned the playing of that anthem.
Elsewhere we find music that is bittersweet, playful, passionate, and
finally exhuberant.
Widmung
(Dedication or Devotion) was originally composed as a song
by Schumann as part of a cycle given to his bride Clara as a wedding present
in 1840. It was transcribed for piano by Liszt in 1848.
Schumann's
Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor was completed in 1835, and written
as a "pure outpouring of love for Clara". Indeed, he borrows
the opening theme from Clara's "Scene Fantastique" (Op. 5),
following it with an unpublished Fandango of his own from 1831. Elsewhere
he plunders an earlier song, "To Anna", written in 1828,
amidst much original writing of passion, wit, reflection and triumph.
...What
a super CD! I bought the download, got the cue file and burned the
CD - put it on the player, intending to play the first track only,
and ended up listening straight through to the end!
... a real beauty of down load distribution. Great stuff!...
David Hall, Derbyshire, UK - first purchaser!
Marta
Felcman, a leading Argentine pianist, quickly established herself
internationally as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. Winner
of a number of important piano competitions in her native country, her
performances won critical acclaim in the press in Europe, South America
and in the United States. She is praised for her sensitive musicianship
and interpretive genius. Audiences appreciate her warm engagement and
her vast repertoire that ranges from Bach to Rorem and includes Argentinean
composers.
Felcman
has appeared in recitals and with orchestras in the Salon Dorado of the
Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Musikverein in Vienna, Summer Festival in
Toulouse, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Bach Festival
in Philadelphia, Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Corcoran Gallery in
Washington, DC, Yale University, Hofstra University, Wesleyan University
in Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Texas in Brownsville, Zimmerli Arts
Museum at Rutgers University and in many other halls. In addition to performances,
she frequently conducts master classes at colleges and universities.
Marta Felcman
started piano studies at the age of four with Hebe Brandenburg in her
native Argentina. Her musical development has been influenced by a succession
of distinguished teachers, most notably Hans Graf at the Musikhochschule
in Vienna; Paul Badura-Skoda also in Vienna; Louis Kentner and Peter Katin
in London and Rosalyn Tureck in New York.
Her debut
CD, released in September 2002, includes works by Scarlatti, Bach/Busoni,
Guastavino, Schumann and Ned Rorem, who wrote, “not only my piece,
but all the others, are played with care, understanding and prowess.”
Commenting on a pre-release copy, Gramophone Magazine critic Laurence
Vittes wrote, ”on the basis of the CD, she is quite a major artist!”
Her second CD devoted to works by Robert Schumann was issued by Eroica
Classical Recordings in September, 2006 in commemoration of the composer’s
anniversary. It has received accolades for her passionate and sensitive
interpretations.
Critics
have praised Ms. Felcman’s "greatest musical sophistication"
(Washington Post) and hailed her performance as "one of the
finest recitals in this writer's memory....power and dexterity...pure
musical enjoyment" (Richmond Times, VA). The renowned British
pianist Peter Katin said her Schumann “has to be one of the most
imaginative performances I have heard”
Her recordings
have been featured in documentaries and in films. Born in Buenos Aires,
Marta Felcman has lived in New York City since 1983.
REVIEW
OF Marta Felcman Plays Schumann:
Faschingsshwank aus Wien, Op. 26, Widmung ( Arr. Liszt), Sonata
#1, Op. 11
I
have always had two rules to go by in sorting out the numerous
piano works of Robert Schumann :
1.
The piano works after Op. 17 (the Fantasia in C) are progressively
inferior
2. The Sonatas (Op. 11, 14 and 22) are ponderous and, in their
attempt to come to grips with classical sonata form, lack
the full Schumann romantic magic.
Marta
Felcmann, through her magnificent recital, has forced me to
rethink these long-held rules.
Right
at the beginning of Faschingssachwank, the playful but powerful
opening measures have a joy to them. These are followed by
a brief quieter and more poetic section after which the "sehr
lebhaft" section returns. Felcman takes a minute longer
than Richter (in his great 25 August 1976 Helsinki Recital)
for the first movement allowing a bit more light and shade.
Felcman's jokes seem a bit more gentle, albeit still vigorously
funny; Richter's jokes seem more adolescent, angry and even
cruel. Through the next three movements, the honors seem about
even. In the final movement, Ms. Felcman holds the 6-minute
structure together very well and prevents a sense of anti-climax.
One of the finest Faschings this reviewer has ever heard.
Lizst's
transcription of "Widmung" is played with enormous
(dare I say) widmung (dedication). If this short piece were
the only performance I'd heard of Marta Felcman, the clarity,
the warmth, the spituality of it would be sufficient to mark
her as someone to watch.
Even
Marta Felcman's splendid performance of Schumann's Sonata
#1 cannot convince me that this is one of Schumann's great
works or even an entirely successful work. She tries--how
she tries. But this loose, baggy monster with its longeurs
and acres of repetitive piano figurations in the first and
last movement resists all comers. Ms. Felcman takes every
opportunity that Schumann gives to lighten the texture and
introduce contrasting material. Her virtuosity is more than
equal to the requirements. She plays the more inspired two
middle movements beautifully. Her performance of the two outer
movements makes them almost enjoyable. Save Gilels, perhaps
the best performance of the 1st Sonata I've ever heard.
Marta
Felcman's dashing romantic spirit, her splendid virtuosity,
and her ability to make Schumann's most diverse and sometimes
repetitive structures sound coherent has announced her as
a significant new pianist, with the fire of Argerich and the
discipline of Kissin.
Great
sound, by the way.
Reviewer:
Bill Rosen
Find
out more:
Faschingsschwank
aus Wien, Op. 26 3rd movement: Scherzino
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...one
of the most imaginative performances I've ever heard...
Marta
Felcman, a leading Argentine pianist, quickly established herself
internationally as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. Winner
of a number of important piano competitions in her native country, her
performances won critical acclaim in the press in Europe, South America
and in the United States. She is praised for her sensitive musicianship
and interpretive genius. Audiences appreciate her warm engagement and
her vast repertoire that ranges from Bach to Rorem and includes Argentinean
composers.
