Complete Schubert Recordings 1932-1950 [Box set]

This box contains all of Artur Schnabel's Schubert recordings. Schnabel's reputation for intellectuality and musical integrity sometimes leads listeners to expect a kind of joyless Teutonic paragon when they hear him; in these Schubert records, to the contrary, one hears immense joy in the music, rhythmic freedom, insouciance, ecstasy. One of the great things about this box is the sound quality. Schnabel created a bell-like sound at the instrument, a lyrical, and to my ears, deeply affecting sound that is often lost in modern remastering. Not here. Some of Schnabel's pupils felt that his Schubert playing was even greater than his legendary Beethoven. Don't miss this opportunity to discover if they were right.

Impromptus (4) for piano, D. 899 (Op. 90)
1950 24:05

Impromptus (4) for piano, D. 935 (Op. posth. 142)
1950 32:43

Allegretto for piano in C minor, D. 915
1939 4:54

March for piano in E major, D. 606
1939 3:21

Moments musicaux (6) for piano, D. 780 (Op. 94)
1937 24:31

Piano Sonata No. 17 in D major ("Gasteiner"), D. 850 (Op. 53)
1939 37:53

Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959
1937 34:50

Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D. 960
1939 36:46

Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello & double bass in A major ("Trout"), D. 667 (Op. posth. 114)
1935 34:16
Performed By : Alphonse Onnou / Artur Schnabel / Claude Hobday / Germain Prevost / Robert Maas

Schwanengesang (Swan Song), song cycle for voice & piano, D. 957 : 13. Der Dopplegänger
1932 4:15
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Schwanengesang (Swan Song), song cycle for voice & piano, D. 957 : 11. Die Stadt
1932 3:36
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Gruppe aus dem Tartarus II ("Horch, wie Murmeln"), song for voice & piano, D. 583 (Op. 24/1)
1932 3:34
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Der Kreuzzug ("Ein Münich steht in seiner Zell'"), song for voice & piano, D. 932
1932 4:11
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

An die Laute ("Leiser, leiser, kleine Laute"), song for voice & piano, D. 905 (Op. 81/2)
1932 2:01
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Franz Schubert Listen Now! Ländler (16) & Écossaises (2) for piano (Wiener Damen-Ländler), D. 734 (Op. 67) : Der Musensohn, Op. 92, No. 1, D. 734
1932 2:08
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Erlkönig ("Wer reitet so spät"), song for voice & piano, D. 328 (Op. 1)
1932 5:09
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Therese Behr-Schnabel

Marches Militaires (3) for piano, 4 hands, D. 733 (Op. 51)
1937 12:11
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Divertissement à la hongroise for piano, 4 hands in G minor, D. 818 (Op. 54)
1937 31:37
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Marches (6) for piano, 4 hands ("Grandes Marches"), D. 819 (Op. 40) : March No. 2 in G minor
1937 4:11
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Marches (6) for piano, 4 hands ("Grandes Marches"), D. 819 (Op. 40) : March No. 3 in B minor
1937 7:54
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Divertissement for piano, 4 hands, in E minor ("à la française"), D. 823 (Op. 84/1 & 2, Op. 63/1) : Andantino varié in B minor, Op. 84, D. 823
1937 7:47
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Allegro for piano, 4 hands in A minor ("Lebensstürme"), D. 947 (Op. posth. 144)
1937 12:25
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Rondo for piano, 4 hands in A major ("Grand Rondo"), D. 951 (Op. 107)
1937 10:29
Performed By : Artur Schnabel / Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Depth, versatility and multiplicity of the expression. Here you have a loyal depiction of Schubert's piano music. Indeed, after Beethoven's death the musical taste of the big audiences tended to label and epitomize the composers. Beethoven, the lonely hero, Schumann and his romantic muse, Chopin the man of the sensuous melancholy, Liszt and Thalberg the fierce lions of the keyboard, Mendelssohn, the prodigal son and Bach the solemn austerity.

These epithets not only shaped but wrought and nourished almost three generations about the way to regard the concert program as "Pictures at an exhibition" in which the introspection was left aside where the vibrant fireworks and boisterousness made possible to Gottschalk become a legend, a sort of the supreme magician (when he gathered one thousand pianos in a public concert) , where the paraphrases on themes of opera were the total warranty for an inminent success.

According these rules of the show business , we would not be surprised Schubert's music remained overlooked and forgotten. The cornerstone and the basic principles of the musical Romanticism of the first two decades of the XIX Century began its slow process of decay. But meanwhile Schubert's music had to wait until his first centenary in 1928, when Arthur Schnabel, Wilhelm Kempff and Edwin Fischer showed the world Schubert was a true musical genius and not only a composer of arresting Lieder.

In this sense, this set is not only transcendental but revealing and propitiatory about the depth, expansiveness and multidimensionality of his musical content.

For many, Schnabel was the voice of Beethoven. On the contrary, I think this epithet must be assigned to Kempff, being Schnabel the supreme harbinger to bring us back (like Mendelssohn made with Bach) the world about the pristine and first order importance of this flaming genius.

Don't miss this historical set.

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