Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov – Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor & other piano duets (2017) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov – Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor & other piano duets (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:52 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

“I have composed a big sonata and variations for four hands, and the latter have met with a specially good reception here, but I do not entirely trust Hungarian taste, and I shall leave it to you and to the Viennese to decide their true merit” So wrote Franz Schubert in 1824, evoking the popular 19th-century genre for 4-hands piano that publishers were always pestering him to write for. In his brief life Schubert devoted 32 compositions to this form and the least of these pieces, be it a lndler, polonaise or march, radiates with all of his finesse and sensitivity. Three are incontestable masterpieces, in the same rank as his sonatas or quartets: the Variations D813, the Fantasie D 940 and the Rondo D 951. All three date from the composer’s final years, a period that gave birth to his most accomplished works.

In concert, Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov have played Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’, with Staier at the harpsichord, alongside Shostakovich’s ’24 Preludes and Fugues’, with Melnikov at the piano. Sharing a keyboard evidently suits them just as well; their unique musical complicity bringing together four hands and two immense talents.

Bringing together two of the most individual pianistic brains around, giving them a copy of a Graf fortepiano and putting Schubert in front of them was always going to be interesting…The Allegro vivace [of D940] goes with real oomph, and in their reading as a whole they explore the work’s contrasts to vivid effect…A compelling addition to the Schubert duet discography. – Gramophone Magazine, July 2017

Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov play all these pieces with admirable poetry and intimacy…this new recording has the advantage of being played on the type of instrument Schubert would have known…[the piano] has in-built percussion effects which they use with glee in the two marches included in their programme – BBC Music Magazine, July 2017

Tracklist:

1.Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940, Op. 103: I. Allegro molto moderato – 4:57
2.Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940, Op. 103: II. Largo – 2:23
3.Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940, Op. 103: III. Allegro vivace – Con delicatezza – 6:23
4.Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940, Op. 103: IV. Finale. Tempo primo – 5:43
5.4 Ländler, D. 814 – 3:16
6.Marche Caractéristique in C Major, D. 886: I. Allegro Vivace – 6:18
7.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: I. Thema. Allegretto – 1:29
8.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: II. Variation I – 1:32
9.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: III. Variation II – 1:28
10.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: IV. Variation III. Un poco piu lento – 1:59
11.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: V. Variation IV. Tempo I – 1:31
12.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: VI. Variation V – 2:04
13.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: VII. Variation VI. Maestoso – 1:50
14.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: VIII. Variation VII. Più lento – 3:27
15.Variations on an Original Theme in A-Flat Major, D. 813, Op. 35: IX. Variation VIII. Finale. Allegro moderato – 4:22
16.6 Grandes Marches in B Minor, D. 819, Op. 40: III. Allegretto – 7:24
17.Polonaise in D Minor, D. 824, No. 1, Op. 61 – 4:23
18.Rondo in A Major, D. 951, Op. 107: Allegretto quasi andantino – 12:30