Search - Franz Schubert, Alexander Schneider, Peter Serkin :: Schubert: Violin Sonatinas

Thank you, Alexander!

Vera Kolb | Kenosha, WI | 12/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You need a music therapy, I just know it! Now since you have matured sufficiently to become a concerned citizen of the world, you are disappointed and depressed. The wars, the diseases, the poverty, and other problems in the world are getting to you. You need some pretty music to soothe you.

I picked for the music therapy the Schubert Sonatinas for violin and piano, Op. 137, performed by Alexander Schneider and Peter Serkin. I just got this CD from the Musical Heritage Society, so it is a source that has it. The recording was made in 1964, and it was digitally remastered in 2003.

I have heard lots of music performed by the Alexander Schneider's quartet over the radio. It is one of the finest, most elegant and most musically sound quartet ever, I think. I was thus familiar with his performance style.

This CD with Schubert's sonatinas is a real gem. In a clean performance, devoid of frills and emotional exaggerations, with the most appropriate and controlled vibrato, Alexander Schneider makes a perfect union with Peter Serkin at the piano. As the experienced chamber music expert Schneider never takes off or asserts the violin over the piano. Peter Serkin does a great job, playing delicately and with a perfectly matching style. This was the first recording of Serkin, I learned from the booklet that came with the CD.

I have also learned from this booklet that these works of Schubert are really sonatas, but that the original music publisher titled them sonatinas, since they are not technically demanding and are thus suitable for the amateurs. This is certainly true, at least for the violin part. However, as I followed the music sheets while listening to the CD, I realized that the main difficulty of these sonatinas is the dynamics. It is complicated and it creates the flow of music. An amateur is likely to completely ruin these sonatinas, if he/she plays them without hearing the experts' performance first. (I am speaking from the personal experience).

The sonatinas are exquisitely beautiful. They are lyric and very romantic. Alexander Schneider should get the credit for not going mushy, gushy, and schmaltzy, which would be very easy to do, but it would just detract from the music. The main value of this CD, I feel, is the perfect union of the two players. They are listening to each other; they are achieving a perfect unity. In several places we have the piano leading with the melody and the violin playing the "um pa, pa". This is the best "um pa, pa" ever. Alexander Schneider expresses every note, with slight differences in the color and character, so they are not boring, and thus stays an equal partner with Serkin when he carries the solo. I consider this CD a perfect teaching tool for both the specific performance of these Schubert sonatinas and for the perfect union of the players.

From the booklet I have learned that Alexander Schneider passed away in 1993. I feel sad. Alexander Schneider touched my life and made it better with his beautiful music. It would be nice if I could say to him: Thank you, Alexander!

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