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Track(s) taken from CDA67665

Fugue in E minor, D952

composer
3 June 1828; for performance on the organ at Heiligenkreuz

Paul Lewis (piano), Steven Osborne (piano)
Recording details: February 2010
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: November 2010
Total duration: 3 minutes 30 seconds

Cover artwork: Two Men by the Sea. Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
Pushkin Museum, Moscow / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘In this repertoire Lewis and Osborne are as one, touch and tone indistinguishable from one another (they swap Primo and Secondo roles throughout, apparently, though it’s impossible to tell who is playing which in what), playing with a delicious fluency and obvious affection that is a joy to hear. They open with the Allegro in A minor in a finely graded and characterised reading that puts Jenő Jandó and Illona Prunyi (12/92), for example, in the shade. To conclude, there is the great F minor Fantasie in which the incomparable opening is leant a hint of optimism, even jauntiness, before the subsequent journey to a pathetic conclusion. This is a reading that compares favourably with the benchmark recording by Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia (3/86) … this is a Schubert disc to return to and live with’ (Gramophone)

‘Engaged and often exquisite music-making … such playing suggests they have found the key to conveying Schubert's magical world of shadows and sunlight’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘For those who were fortunate enough to be there, and just as importantly for those who missed it, this disc captures all the exuberance, finesse and camaraderie with which Steven Osborne and Paul Lewis gave their recital of Schubert duets at London’s Wigmore Hall in January. Shortly afterwards they went into the studios to record the same six works, and the result is a pure delight … the quality that shines through in these performances is the way in which Schubert so intuitively judged the special medium of the piano duet. The music is specifically imagined with four hands in mind, at times taxing from the point of view of the two pianists amicably accommodating and coordinating with one another but always with the sense that the potential for varied sonority, expressive breadth and, without doubt, a degree of fun is being broadly and knowledgeably exploited. The F minor Fantasie enshrines some of Schubert’s most sublime ideas, but his range throughout embraces vigour, subtlety, daring, charm, delicacy and drama. Osborne and Lewis have full measure of its inventive scope on a disc of outstanding, enlivening musicianship’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘From the opening thunderclap of the 'Lebensstürme' it is clear that great things are in store. As furiously impassioned a movement as Schubert ever wrote, the piece poses some of the thorniest ensemble challenges to be found among the duet works … Lewis and Osborne meet these demands with one heart and one mind and do so, moreover, with an audacity that doesn't sacrifice a single degree of the work's molten intensity … no one with a taste for superlative, passionately committed music-making, ensemble of the highest calibre or some of Schubert's most beautiful music can afford to miss this one’ (International Record Review)

‘The Fantasie in F minor would earn its place in any list of Schubert's supreme masterpieces. Osborne and Lewis predictably reserve their finest, most perceptive playing for the Fantasie, giving its infinitely regretful main theme a different shading on each of its appearances and colouring the work's harmonic shifts and modulations impeccably. None of their performances could be described as routine, though, even when the music is less than top drawer, and in works such as the A flat major Variations and the deceptively modest-sounding Allegro in A minor, both of which approach the Fantasie in scale, they find emotional depths and dramas that unmistakably identify both as products of Schubert's final year’ (The Guardian)

‘This brilliantly planned programme is executed with poetry, drama and verve by two complementary pianists who clearly think as one in this sublime chamber music’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Osborne and Lewis fly with Schubertian grace through some of the most inspired music every conceived for piano duet’ (The Irish Times)

‘This is a recording which, quite simply, deserves immediate ‘classic’ status, and will be high on anyone’s wanted list of Schubert piano releases for a very long time indeed. Challengers such as the DOM label’s Irena Kofman and André de Groote and the more completist bargain EMI sets with Christoph Eschenbach and Justus Frantz have their qualities, but this Hyperion release is much more of an all-round winner’ (MusicWeb International)

‘There’s plenty of intimacy here, but also a satisfying expansiveness too—the Allegro in A minor thunders into vivid life here, relaxing magically when the gentle second subject comes into view, decorated beautifully by the second pianist. Who plays what part is not made clear; the notes tell us that Lewis and Osborne alternate the first and second roles. The short Fugue in E minor, composed in a few hours, is carefully voiced, reaching a magnificent, sonorous climax. Best of all is the Fantasie in F minor, and the ease with which Lewis and Osborne match the hesitant, melancholy opening theme with its more flowing accompaniment’ (TheArtsDesk.com)
The origins of the Fugue in E minor, D952 were recounted by Schubert’s composer friend Franz Lachner:

In the year 1828, on 3 June, Schubert and I were invited by the editor of the Modezeitung [Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode], Herr [Johann] Schikh, for a country outing to Baden, near Vienna. In the evening Schikh said to us: ‘Tomorrow morning we shall go to Heiligenkreuz, to hear the famous organ there. Perhaps you could both compose a small piece and perform it there?’ Schubert suggested the composition of a four-hands fugue, which was completed by both parties towards midnight. On the next day, at 6 in the morning, we travelled to Heiligenkreuz, where both fugues were performed in the presence of several monks.

Schubert, who was about to embark on the composition of his Mass in E flat major, D950, was much preoccupied with fugal writing during the final months of his life, and he subsequently used the same fugue-subject for an exercise in counterpoint which he prepared in the hope of receiving instruction from the renowned theoretician Simon Sechter. Although Schubert’s fugue is laid out for four hands, the presence during its closing stages of a long-sustained pedal-note in the bass indicates that he had the sound of the Heiligenkreuz organ in mind.

from notes by Misha Donat © 2010

Franz Lachner, compositeur et ami de Schubert, relata les origines de la Fugue en mi mineur D952:

Le 3 juin 1828, Schubert et moi fûmes invités par l’éditeur de la Modezeitung [Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode], Herr [Johann] Schikh, à une partie de campagne à Baden, près de Vienne. Le soir, Schikh nous dit: «Demain matin, nous pourrions aller à Heiligenkreuz, entendre l’orgue célèbre. Peut-être pourriez-vous quand même composer un petit morceau à jouer là-bas?» Schubert suggéra la composition d’une fugue à quatre mains, qui fut terminée par les deux parties vers minuit. Le lendemain, à six heures du matin, nous partîmes pour Heiligenkreuz, où les deux fugues furent exécutées en présence de plusieurs moines.

Dans les derniers mois de sa vie, Schubert, sur le point d’entreprendre sa Messe en mi bémol majeur D950, se soucia beaucoup d’écriture fuguée; par la suite, il reprit ce sujet de fugue dans un exercice de contrepoint préparé dans l’espoir de recevoir des leçons du célèbre théoricien Simon Sechter. La Fugue en mi mineur est conçue à quatre mains mais la présence, dans ses derniers volets, d’une note pédale tenue, à la basse, indique que Schubert avait en tête le son de l’orgue de Heiligenkreuz.

extrait des notes rédigées par Misha Donat © 2010
Français: Hypérion

Über die Entstehung der Fuge in e-Moll D952 berichtet Schuberts Freund und Kollege Franz Lachner:

Im Jahre 1828, den 3. Juni, wurden Schubert und ich von dem Herausgeber der Modezeitung [Wiener Zeitschift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode], Herrn [Johann] Schikh, zu einer Landpartie nach Baden bei Wien eingeladen; des Abends sagte uns Schikh: „Wir wollen morgen früh nach Heiligenkreuz, um die dortige berühmte Orgel zu hören; vielleicht könntet Ihr noch eine Kleinigkeit komponieren und sie dort afführen?“—Schubert schlug die Komposition einer vierhändigen Fuge vor, welche auch gegen Mitternacht von beiden Teilen vollendet war. Am andern Tag—früh 6 uhr—fuhren wir nach Heiligenkreuz, wo beiden Fugen in Gegenwart mehrerer Klosterherren aufgeführt wurden.

Schubert, der sich anschickte, mit seiner Messe in Es-Dur D950 zu beginnen, war in den letzten Monaten seines Lebens stark mit Fugenschreiben beschäftigt, und so verwendete er dasselbe Fugenthema für eine Übung im Kontrapunkt, für die er sich Anleitung vom bekannten Musiktheoretiker Simon Sechter erhoffte. Obgleich seine Fuge für vier Hände geschrieben ist, deutet eine lang ausgehaltene Pedalnote im Bass in den letzten Takten darauf hin, dass er an die Orgel in Heiligenkreuz gedacht hatte.

aus dem Begleittext von Misha Donat © 2010
Deutsch: Henning Weber

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