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Savoury Schubertian Salubrities...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 01/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Disc serves up a tasty dish of lesser-known aeolian fungi by our favourite little toadstool, "Schwammerl."



It is not unusual to hear flautists appropriate violin literature, and while Schubert's a-minor Sonata D.821 for the now extinct arpeggione (bowed guitar) is usually performed on the cello, it is here given an haunting reading with brazen wind.



(Cf. César Franck's Sonata for violin with substitute flute, or Brahms' late Violin Sonata with substitute cello.)



The genre of Flute Sonata didn't really catch fire till round the turn of the century and after; withal, (with the exception as always of the trailblazing Beethoven's Op. 107), Schubert's e-minor Introduction, Theme, and (vii) Variations D. 802 represents a very singular achievement.



Schubert takes his Theme from song 18 "Trockne Blumen [Withered Flowers]"--the climax of his song-cycle Die Schöne Müllerin [The Beautiful Mill-Maid] D. 795, featuring the echt-Romantic topos of the Liebestod idea that the existential longing for perfect Love [Eros] is only assuaged in Death [Thanatos].



(Cf. other notable instances where Schubert took his own melodies as themes for chamber works:

music for Rosamunde D. 797 used in String Quartet D. 804;

"Der Tod und Das Mädchen" D. 531 used in String Quartet D. 810;

"Sei Mir Gegrüsst" D. 741 used in Violin Fantasy D. 934.)



This rare recital is filled out with lieder transcriptions from the late masterworks Winterreise D. 911 and Schwanengesang D. 957.



Timings, sound, performances all very satisfactory.

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Dvorák: Sonatina in G major; Schubert: Introduction and Variations; Franck: Sonata in A major

Oktett Octet -Variations Trockne Blumen

Schubert; Reinecke; Martinu: Flute & Piano Works

Trockne Blumen: 19th Century Flute Music

Franz Schubert: Songs Without Words

Beethoven: Complete Chamber Music for Flute

Brahms: Sonatas for Cello and Piano

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