PAKM502: Marta Felcman plays Piano Works by Robert Schumann
Flag
Buy MP3

MP3
price

Price Code

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

 

PAKM502

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 Indeed, he borrows the opening theme from Clara's "Scene Fantastique" (Op. 5), following it with an unpublished Fandango of his own from 1831.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

About Schumann:

Wikipedia
The Classical Music Pages
Robert Schumann Research Institute

About Marta Felcman:

martafelcman.com

CD covers to print:
(NB. Disable Page Scaling before printing)

Download pdf CD cover

CD-writing cuesheet (save as .cue):
(Use this to split MP3 files - see here)

Cue sheet

 

 



 

 

Google
 
Web Pristine Classical

 

 

Pristine Classical - DRM-free historic FLAC and MP3 downloads since 2005