Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Artur Rubinstein :: Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 55

Schubert for the evening hours...

Kenneth J. Luurs | Oak Park, IL USA | 04/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For me, the Schubert B-flat is a brooding introspective work. Rubinstein spoke of how it reminded him of death. I didn't know that the first time I heard this recording, but that is certainly how I felt about it as well.Rubinstein recorded it several times before he found a version that he was happy with. Unfortunately, in 1987 when RCA went to release the CD version, they decided to go with a more conventional performance that Rubinstein had recorded a few years earlier rather than the version he authorized for release. And most folks nodded their head and said, "yes, this is as it should be..." Except, Rubinstein and a handful of us prefer this version. So, why? Because it captures the darkness that Schubert intended for the work. Rubinstein plays the opening a bit slower than most though thankfully not as slowly as Richter. Listen to the ending of the first movement, it just withers away. The second movement is - mournful, gentle -- as beautiful as the movement has ever been played. The third movement brings hope -- and is intended to balance some of what has preceded it. I've performed this sonata and own a goodly number of the recordings of this work including 3 Brendel performances, Uchida, Hough, Goode, Schnabel, Afanassiev, Kempf, Dalberto, Cooper, Schiff, Barenboim, Weichert, Richter (3), Kovocivich, Lupu, Pires, and perhaps a dozen others... While I love a few of these and a couple are technically better performed, this Rubinstein recording is a performance that really touches the heart. Rubinstein liked it. I think you would too. Just be aware that a lot of "experts" disagree. Since, this a minority view, you might be well advised to purchase this version of the sonata while you still can. The "experts" will likely dictate that this performance be once again hidden from the world. Oh yes, and the Beethoven...the performance has a Rubinstein stamp on it...but this recording you want for the Schubert."

Rubinstein's Schubert -- a revision

George Hewitt | SOAS, London University, UK | 03/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review is from a non-musicologist, which may explain why the opinions expressed differ from those of the 'experts'.My first introduction to the Schubert sonata was a radio-discussion on the BBC in which the old recording by Schnabel was played. When I eventually came to buy the piece on LP in the 1970s, I was only interested in acquiring Rubinstein's interpretation. I gave the LP away and kept a taped copy, whose quality was somewhat less than satisfactory. So, starting a CD collection in the late 80s, this was the first CD I sought. The very first bars, however, indicated that this was not the version to which my ears had grown accustomed, and a perusal of the accompanying notes revealed that the LP-release, recorded in 1969 and approved by the pianist, was substituted on the CD by an earlier recording because (i) the LP-version had been poorly reviewed at the time, and (ii) the recording-engineer preferred the earlier one anyway. Only now has the recording company seen fit to re-release the 1969 version on CD, and to my mind it is the canonical version amongst all those that I have heard.For me, recordings of this sonata stand or fall on the performance of the first two movements. Schubert was facing death when he composed this masterpiece, and one naturally expects agony to be reflected through tempo and phrasing of the beautiful melody that (typically for this composer) characterises the first movement. Whilst the majority of listeners are not in the same predicament as Schubert, nevertheless most of us are faced by various travails, and it is musing over the darker side of life that seems to be captured in the 2nd movement with the rising theme starting at 3'12" suggesting an assertion of the indomitability of the human spirit. No other performance I know quite speaks to me in this way as does the Rubinstein 1969 recording (that on volume 54 of the Rubinstein Collection is simply too fast and smooth in both these crucial movements). How it can be described as 'dry' or 'detached' is beyond my comprehension.Given the interpretation of the music offered above, imagine my surprise at reading the dramatic family-circumstances that lay behind this particular recording, as detailed in Harvey Sachs' gripping Rubinstein biography! The pianist had a long, heated and virtually final conversation that morning with one of his children. And so, one can only imagine his mood as he sat down at the piano in Rome, reflected perhaps by the halting rhythm in his 1st movement interpretation but stating his own (well-known) indomitable spirit at that crucial moment in the 2nd.I also find the accompanying early Beethoven sonata as bright and fresh as one could wish."

Ruby has two faces

Kevin McManus | Milan, MI Italy | 04/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We're used to think of Rubinstein as of a cheerful guy... I mean, reading his autobiography, or other people's opinion on him, we get the portrait of an old but always youngish man with a lot of energy, who doesn't take "everything" for serious, and enjoys life in all its beauty. That's the Rubinstein we often hear on disc: compare his Beethoven Concertos with performances by Backhaus or Schnabel; with Ruby you get "Latin" rhythm and passion not immediately associated with those works. His performance of Sonata n. 3 is no exception; the energy heard in the fast movements and the tone clarity of the slow one are without match in the whole discography of the Sonata.But there is another Rubinstein: a man who's faced death and sadness, war and loss, a man who watched the world he loved falling apart; most of all, an artist always able to express such different feelings as pain and melancholy. That's the Rubinstein we hear in the latest Chopin recordings (vol. 44-50 and 69), in Spanish music (vol.7 and 18) and in unforgettable performances of Brahms' late piano works. The present recording of Schubert's Sonata shows this face of Rubinstein's artistry; slow tempi, controlled rubato, dark and full sound; we're not used to hear him playing this way, and maybe we're not used to hear the Sonata played this way, either. But I think nobody has ever shown so many ghosts flying through Schubert's classical perfection.There might be better discs in the Collection, but this one is the best and most complete available portrait of Arthur Rubinstein."