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Site review by Polly Nomial April 11, 2007
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
After Schumann: Piano Concerto - Zacharias, I approached this disc with a great deal of caution. Fortunately, such reservations were unfounded and I enjoyed the playing much more. There is competition of the main work, the Sonata in A D959 (found on Schubert: Piano Sonatas - Thomas Günther and in a less recommendable account Schumann, Schubert: Piano Works - Hisako Kawamura).
Compared to Thomas Günther, Zacharias takes a more outwardly expressive and Romantic approach to the music. Some may not warm to this ideal but I found it enjoyable, even though I felt that he emphasised the sunnier side to the music and occasionally brushed over the angst contained in a great many passages, especially the slow movement. The tempi are conventional (in the best sense of the word) and there is nothing mannered in his approach; his rubato is natural and responds well to the character of the music. Particularly effective is the introduction of the octave writing at the beginning of the slow movement - it really sings. All repeats are observed to make a satisfying whole of the glorious piano music Schubert left us.
The make weights are short but sweet - there was surely room for a more substantial set of "encores" (either by carrying on the set of dances or perhaps the Moments musicaux), well played miniatures as these dances are by Zacharias.
The sound is good but the piano is not in the best condition. It has a decidedly thin and hard tone quality (which I believe is deliberate so that it approximates an older style of keyboard instrument) but less forgiveable is the lack of care in the tuning; this is something that reduces much of the value of Zacharias' hard work - try to sample the disc before purchasing to see if it would be off-putting upon repetition as I found it. The close miking also contributes to a fortepiano-esque style sound. The rest of the sound characteristics are good without being exceptional.
Recommended with some reservations.
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Copyright © 2007 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Review by terence April 7, 2007 (6 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
This is highly recommendable. I listened in 5.1 multichannel and found the piano tone among the very best and most natural I've heard, extremely realistic. Balance is not too far forward, not too far back - well nigh perfect.
Zacharias's interpretation uses a wide range of dynamics, and has a pretty much ideal combination of steel and tenderness, and he certainly doesn't sentimentalise or drag tempos in the more lyrical passages.
This is one of my favourite sonatas, and I'd put this performance up there with the likes of Rudolf Serkin and Imogen Cooper (both RBCD) for overall satisfaction. It's the debut of D959 on SACD, and a very good one at that.
The short clutch of miscellaneous Dances used to make up the programme are a fairly light makeweight, but won't stop me giving this a maximum rating. I'd love to hear Zacharias's D960.
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Review by mgm May 24, 2007 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
Listening to Christian Zacharias' new recording (13-14 November 2006) of Schubert's A Major Sonata, D. 959, Op. Posth., I am reminded of Goethe's autobiography, Truth and Poetry. Commentators have traced the motivic impulse in the first movement to Der Atlas (from the Swan-Song cycle, D. 957), a song of both virile strength and resignation. Dark runs and chromatic harmony intrude on whatever idyll the music projects; this intimation of mortality returns even more contrapuntally in the F-sharp Minor Andantino. Sensitive to harmonic shifts and modulations, Zacharias adapts his tempos and dynamic touch constantly, a real kaleidoscope of melancholy. As engineered by Friedrich Wilhelm Roedding, the piano in surround sound emerges in pellucid colors, and often, an intimate dialogue ensues among the keyboard registers. For me, the heart of the sonata is the Andantino, and few have performed its mysteries--with their homage to Bach--with more mystical devotion than Rudolf Serkin. Zacharias makes some beautiful music here, though; his arpeggios and elastic recitative are not to be denied. The stretti pound on one's door with an anguished insistence. With the da capo come added figures of the former tempest, recollections of dark things past. Glitter and stardust in the Scherzo: does the resonant, punishing C-sharp Minor run make it a Fool's Paradise? Zacharias takes the finale, Rondo: Allegretto, at a brisk pace, its combination of sonata and rondo forms, a la Haydn, exquisitely presented. The piano's upper registers pierce the soul without becoming shrill. For his Schubertiads, the composer write some 500 waltzes, German Dances, and Laendler, the terms often interchangeable. Pre-Chopin, these perennially charming miniatures play like improvisations for either one or two performers, four hands. Some years ago, Boldoni on an EMI issue offered a hefty series of these gems. The main characteristic of these dances is their eminent vocal quality, one song rolling forth after another. Some, like the third of the D. 820 set, approach Chopin's mazurka style. No. 4 of the set proves weighty, a bit of Schumann's Florestan. The 1814 set opens with a piece in cross-rhythms, dreamily elegiac. No. 2 is more percussive, more militant. Nos. 3 and 4 could have belonged in Schumann's Nachtstucke collection, Op. 23. The last two pieces are album leaves - rather precious, delicate moments of Schubertian tracery, delicately played.
Gary Lemco (from Audiophile Audition, März 2007)
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