Search - Samuel Feinberg, Christophe Sirodeau, Nikolaos Samaltanos :: Samuil Feinberg: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-6

Phantasmagoria, Profundity, and Pathos - Feinberg's Sonatas

Hexameron | 12/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Samuil Feinberg (1890-1962) is not a name most classical listeners are likely to come across. Music scholars would probably not even recognize him as a composer, but as the pianist who first concertized Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in Russia. Beyond that, classical pianists may only recall Feinberg as a transcriber of Bach and Tchaikovsky's "Scherzo" movement from the 'Pathetique' Symphony. I certainly never stumbled across his name until reading Robert Rimm's The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The Eight. Rimm's flowery and Romantic writing on Feinberg elevated my curiosity. Feinberg's oeuvre is small and compact, with a few preludes, fantasies, and songs separating his monumental 12 Piano Sonatas. I took a gamble by purchasing this recording without sampling any of the music...



... and not since Hamelin's recording of the Alkan: Symphony for solo piano have I been so mesmerized and deeply moved by music that is virtually unknown to most musicologists and art-music connoisseurs. I find the "genius" description cliché, but I think Feinberg's early sonatas deserve the classification: they are works of startling originality and expressive power. The expressivity of Beethoven and the Mahleresque "symphony as a world" concept merge together in Feinberg's music. It's tempting to compare Feinberg's sonatas to Scriabin's or Roslavets' as another reviewer of this recording has done. The turbulent Russian Romantic idiom of Scriabin certainly resides in Feinberg's music. And the melancholic impressionism of Roslavets can also be heard. Yet somehow Feinberg's sonatas still sound like no other. Perhaps Robert Rimm makes the best differentiation: "Feinberg's brand of musical poetry does not explore the rarefied, ephemeral, or sensuous [as in Scriabin], but rather focuses on the deeper psyche and problems of man."



I could string together the following words to describe these six sonatas: intense, virtuosic, intellectual, impressionistic, esoteric, tormented, eerie, and beautiful. Feinberg's first two sonatas are cast in single movement forms and both last a little under 10 minutes. These works are most akin to Scriabin and are brimming with gorgeous lyricism and lush piano writing. The Second Sonata is Feinberg at his happiest, which means brooding nostalgia. But the Third Sonata is a masterpiece, featuring an innovative three-movement formal structure of "Prelude," "Funeral March" and the "Sonata" itself. The "Funeral March" is a titanic force of despondency comparable to Liszt's darker works and Scriabin's "Funebre" movement from his First Sonata. Feinberg employs a variety of musical symbols, including a "Death" motif (a stark and effective use of fifths) that later becomes the main thematic thread of the "Sonata" movement, which is an unbelievable 13-minute "Allegro appassionato" of stupefying virtuosity. The "Sonata" has a dense texture and constant motion that truly requires a rare brand of virtuosity. The technical challenges can be heard; they are jaw-dropping. But if that wasn't enough of an obstacle for the pianist, there is the unrelenting cerebral complexity and emotional angst to interpret and convey. Christophe Sirodeau, the pianist who plays the work, calls this "Sonata" movement "a veritable hurricane of destruction." He refers to the stormy piano writing as sounding destructive, but I wouldn't be surprised if many a pianists' hands were destroyed in the process of playing this behemoth.



The Fourth and Fifth sonatas also exude an abundance of compositional imagination and expressive content. The Fifth Sonata has moments where the texture transcends the sound world of the piano. Feinberg may be writing in a tonal language but it still sounds darker and more alien than much of the atonal music of his contemporaries. Perhaps Feinberg's greatest work and one of the finest 20th century piano sonatas I've ever encountered is the Sixth Sonata. It is analyzed extensively in the liner-notes where it is praised as "an acknowledged masterpiece." Feinberg opens with a faint series of tritones and then unfurls with the most nightmarish expressions and musical rhetoric. There is a haunting section that evokes tolling bells far more potently than even Rachmaninov. But the greatest moment occurs in the explosive and apocalyptic climax that brings the work to a quiet and tragic end.



Bottom line: I passionately encourage the fortunate browser who finds this recording to buy it. Fans of Scriabin, Roslavets, Szymanowski, Myaskovsky, Liszt, Medtner or Rachmaninov will surely consider Feinberg worthy. These sonatas are not academic or salon music but abstruse and dark "poems of life" as the pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva called them."

Feinberg as Composer-Pianist

Alscribji | Washington, D.C. | 02/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD features Samuel Feinberg's earliest efforts at published compositions. The first three sonatas on this CD are also his Op. 1,2, and 3. Feinberg is discussed in the book The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and the Eight, by Robert Rimm,a work devoted to the pianists-composers Alkan, Busoni, Scriabin, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Sorabji, Godowsky, and Feinberg. Feinberg's piano music has received little attention, e.g., sonata 1, 3, and 4 are world premiere recordings. This is surprising given the quality of Feinberg's piano compositions. His music seems close to Scriabin, Roslavets, and maybe Sorabji, but is more tonal than these. Sonatas 1 and 2 are tight works with short durations (6'50 and 9'01). Sonatas 4 and 5 and likewise short pieces (8'33 and 8'05), but are works of high imagination and orginality; one wonders why Feinberg's music has taken so long to catch hold. His third sonata is a three-movement work with a Marcia Funebre. The third movement is a spine tingling and exotic Allegro appassionato. The music goes from loud to soft, thunderous to light. The themes and their development reflect a composer of great intellect, and dashing and daring virtuosity. The pianists, Nikolaos Samaltanos and Christophe Sirodeau bring Feinberg's powerful piano music to vibrant life; the slow movements are played eloquently and sublimely. This CD contains some of the most orginal piano music of the early twentieth century, alongside Scriabin and Roslavets. The fourth, fifth, and sixth sonatas bear this out easily. A must for pianophiles. A second CD of Feinberg's sonatas, 7-12, accompanies this one, the same pianists and the same label, BIS."

Feinberg-Sublime Metaphysical Music

Neongrapes | Boston,MA | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A CD you'll never regret buying. Feinberg is one of the few composers able to write true mystic music

that reflects the deep mysteries of the soul. The Sixth Piano Sonata is without question a masterpiece, and in my opinion a revelation and testament to the power of music. Pay attention to the main theme at the outset: down a perfect fourth, and then down a tritone; this theme is ingrained everywhere throughout the piece; very very impressive. Now, I am a fan of Hexameron, but I must disagree on one point: this music is not tonal. There are chords used in tonal music, especially in the first, second, and third sonatas, but they are not used functionally. On occasion, you could use roman numeral analysis perhaps in the first or second, but this really would be like seeing only the trees, and not the forest; and ultimately a disservice to Feinberg's complex and original language. Technically, Feinberg's sixth is in "B minor"; but Feinberg is really just paying lip-service to this idea. Major and minor chords are really just a choice of punctuation. Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon ends on an E-flat major chord, but does that mean his piece, secretly, all along, was in the key of E-flat major and is tonal? Good heavens no! Also, I disagree with the Rimms quote: "Feinberg's brand of musical poetry does not explore the rarefied, ephemeral, or sensuous [as in Scriabin], but rather focuses on the deeper psyche and problems of man." Scriabin's music has nothing to do with the sensous; this is a complete misunderstanding. Scriabin's music is 100 percent about the Spiritual life of man. It is not some shallow evocation of a hedonist. It is the music of a man who was tired of this earthly material existence, and with his Mysterium, planned to dematerialize the world and bring all of mankind in to the eternal state of ecstasy. Ecstasy; Which has nothing to with physical pleasure and everything to do with complete Peace through spiritual fulfillment. This is the exact same idea as Christian heaven. His idea of course was impossible, but one I am sympathetic to. During his middle period Scriabin did make some references to voluptuousness and kisses etc. but these references are few. Predominately, the notes in his scores were ones that reflected his spirituality. Scriabin was first and foremost a mystic, and not a sensualist. If you want proof, read Scriabin: Artist and Mystic, written by Scriabin's brother-in-law; himself a philosopher and very close to Scriabin."