Search - Schubert, Gulda, Hinterhuber :: Piano Works for 4 Hands

Treasures, most rarely heard, for piano four hands

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Four-hand piano music in Schubert's time was primarily Hausmusik - music for two amateur pianists to play for their own amusement. But only one of the pieces - the Variations in B flat, D. 968A - really falls into that category. All the other pieces are big and serious, and one of them, the Fantasie in F minor, D. 940, is an acknowledged masterpiece of the piano literature.The earliest piece, the aforementioned Variations, is light-hearted, not too difficult, and played in sparkling fashion here by Gulda and Hinterhuber. Rico Gulda, by the way, is the youngest child of famous Viennese pianist, Friedrich Gulda. He has also made a fine recording of Schumann's 'Album für die Jugend' for Naxos.The Rondo in A major, D. 951 and the Duo in A minor 'Lebensstürme' ('Life's Storms') are actually two movements of a never-finished grand sonata for piano four hands, also written in Schubert's final year. The Duo is a huge and complex sonata-form first movement and the Rondo is the intended final movement of the sonata. They were published separately and indeed are here played in reverse of their intended order. The duo-pianists do a fine job of pointing up both the drama and form of the Duo and the lyricism of the Rondo.The Divertissement on a French Theme in B minor, D. 823, a set of theme and four variations, was written two years before Schubert's lamentably early death and it is not quite as serious nor as skilled as the sonata movements that precede it on this disc. But it would take fairly advanced players to pull it off, as this team does.The Fantasie, which is the only piece most people are likely to have heard in concert, is, as I've said, a masterpiece, written only six months before Schubert's death. In its twenty minutes it ranges from the opening poignance to sunny lyricism to stark agitation which then returns to the opening F minor opening and a quiet close. It has been recorded many times. In modern times the nonpareil recording has been that of Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu; their recording, made in the mid-1980s, has never been out of the catalog, it's _that_ good. Still, this recording is fine, except for some note-spinning that comes towards the end; it begins to sound like Czerny exercises at that point. I am assuming that our pianists lost their concentration for a few seconds. A word about the sound: the piano has a somewhat clattery extreme upper register and it sounds, to these ears, to be slightly out of tune. This is not, in itself, too bothersome because that register is not used too often in these pieces. But it _is_ noticeable. The recorded sound itself is fine."

Intense performance

J. An | S.F. Bay Area, CA | 02/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am so glad that I got this CD. I also have other artists' versions of Schubert, but this one is much more intense. I would recommend this to everyone."