Artur Schnabel - Complete Schubert Recordings 1932-1950 (2005) [5CD]

This set brings together all of the published commercial recordings of the works of Franz Schubert made by Artur Schnabel. They were set down during an 18-year period that spanned Schnabel's entire recording career, with the Lieder sides being among the first discs he made and the two sets of Impromptus being among the very last. The collections of a number of archives, both public and private, have been drawn upon in order to provide multiple copies of the best available source material for the present transfers. As one would expect, a wide range of sound and pressing quality is represented during this period. The 1932 Lieder records, made when EMI's technicians were still acclimating themselves to Schnabel's dynamic range, sound rather faintly recorded ; they were issued only on noisy British shellac pressings and the set from which they come is rare. The next Schubert sessions three years later yielded one of the best sounding recordings, the "Trout" Quintet, which had the added advantage of being released by American Victor on quiet "Red Seal Scroll" label pressings, which were used for the current transfer. The first of the sonatas to be recorded (the A major D. 959) was the subject of the next Schnabell Schubert session in 1937. This was released on relatively quiet Victor prewar "Gold" label pressings, which provided the source for this set. The remaining two sonatas, however, and the two short works that conclude cd. 1 were done two years later, on the eve of the Second World War. These did not receive the same care either in recording or in processing, and were issued on pressings of inferior shellac. The D major Sonata (D. 850) came out only on crackly HMVs, while the B-Flat Sonata (D. 960) was here transferred from a similarly noisy wartime Victor "Silver" label set. All of the four-hand piano recordings were done over a two-day period in October, 1937. Victor released these in the United States on relatively quiet "Gold" pressings (from which they have been transferred here), although they did not stay long in the catalogue and are relatively scarce. The final sessions injune of 1950 were primarily devoted to the two sets of Impromptus, and were the first of the pianist's recordings to be made on magnetic tape. These give perhaps the clearest indication of Schnabel's tone. Prior "official" transfers of these were not pitched correctly, with most of the Impromptus being a bit flat and a couple of them quite sharp. The pitch for these tracks (taken from British LP pressings) has been corrected, as they have been for all the records reproduced here.

Tracks:

Cd. 1
Impromptus Op. 90, D. 899
1 N° 1 in C minor 8:53
2 N° 2 in E-Flat major 4:10
3 N° 3 in G-Flat major 4:54
4 N° 4 in A-Flat major 6:08

Impromptus, Op. posth. 142, D. 935
5 N° 1 in F minor 9:04
6 N° 2 in A-Flat major 7;14
7 N° 3 in B-Flat major 9:44
8 N° 4 in F minor 6:41

9 Allegretto in C minor, D. 915 4:54
10 March in E major, D. 606 3:21


Cd. 2
Moments musicaux, Op. 94, D. 780
1 N° 1 in C major 4:55
2 N° 2 in A-Flat major 6:24
3 N° 3 in F minor 1:51
4 N° 4 in C-Sharp minor 3:51
5 N° 5 in F minor 1:15
6 N° 6 in A-Flat major 6:37

Piano Sonata n° 18 in D major, Op. 53, D. 850
7 I. Allegro vivace 8:29
8 II. Con moto 13;24
9 III. Scherzo (Allegro vibace) 8:02
10 IV. Rondo (Allegro moderato) 7:46


Cd. 3
Piano Sonata n° 21 in A major, D. 959
1 I. Allegro 11:16
2 II. Andantino 8:16
3 Scherzo (Allegro vivace) 4:31
4 IV. Rondo (Allegretto) 10:47

Piano Sonata n° 22 in B-Flat major, D. 950
5 I. Molto moderato 13:52
6 II. Andante sostenuto 11:23
7 III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace con delicatezza) 4:14
8 IV. Allegro ma non troppo 7:17


Cd. 4
Piano Quintet in A major, Op. posth. 114, D. 667
"Trout"
1 I. Allegro vivace 8:49
2 II. Andante 7:35
3 III. Scherzo (Presto) and Trio 4:14
4 IV. Andantino 7:30
5 V. Finale (Allegro giusto) 6:08

Lieder
6 Der Doppelgänger (from Schwanengesang, D. 957, n° 13) 4:14
7 Die Stadt (from Schwanengesang, D. 957, n° 11) 3:36
8 Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, Op. 24, n° 1, D. 585 3:34
9 Der Kreuzzugg, D. 932 4:11
10 An die Laute, Op. 81, n° 2, D. 905 2:01
11 Der Musensohn, Op. 92, n° 1, D. 764 2:08
12 Erlkönig, Op. 1, D. 328 5:09

Marches militaires, Op. 51, D. 733
13 N° 1 in D major 3:47
14 N° 2 in G major 3:39
15 N° 3 in E-Flat major 4:45


Cd. 5
Divertissement à la Hongroise in G minor, Op. 54, D. 818
1 I. Andante 12:58
2 II. Marcia (Andante con moto) 4:04
3 III. Allegretto 14:35

4 Marsch in G minor, Op. 40, D. 819, n° 2 4:11
5 Marsch in B minor, Op. 40, D. 819, n° 3 7:54
6 Andantino varié in B minor, Op. 84, D. 823 7:47
7 Allegro in A minor, Op. posth. 144, D. 947
"Lebensstürme"
8 Rondo in A major, Op. 107, D. 951 10:29


Personnel:

Artur Schnabel - p
Karl Ulrich Schnabel - p [Cd. 4, # 13-15 & Cd. 5, # 1-8]
Therese Behr-Schnabel - cntrlt [Cd. 4, # 6-12]
Members of the Pro Arte Quartet [Cd. 4, # 1-5]
Alphonse Onnou - vl
Germain Prévost - vla
Robert Maas - cel
Claude Hobday - b