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Published: Friday, 20 December 2024 at 13:21 PM
Review: Brahms • Schubert: Piano Works (Alexandre Kantorow)
Brahms • Schubert
Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1; Schubert (Trans. Liszt): Song Transcriptions – Der Wanderer; Der Müller und der Bach; Frühlingsglaube; Die Stadt; Am Meer; Schubert: Fantasy in C major ‘Wanderer Fantasy’, D760
Alexandre Kantorow (piano)
BIS BIS-2660 (CD/SACD) 72:44 mins
Clip: Schubert: Wanderer Phantasie – III. Presto (Alexandre Kantorow)
We don’t know exactly which of his own pieces the 20-year-old Brahms played to the Schumanns the first time he visited them. There’s a good chance, however, that he included the C major Piano Sonata. It became his Op. 1 and may have been chosen for the purpose with their advice. As Alexandre Kantorow plays it, you can well imagine the astounded Robert stopping him and rushing to fetch Clara.
Kantorow has already recorded the other two Brahms sonatas, but this is the only one of his series to draw in another romantic composer. Schubert is a perfect choice, since Brahms, along with Schumann, played an important role in their unfortunate predecessor’s posthumous rehabilitation. Schumann had visited Schubert’s brother Ferdinand in Vienna and found in his home manuscript treasures galore, including the Ninth Symphony. Brahms then edited some of the piano works for publication, taking no printed credit. The C major Piano Sonata has much in common with Schubert’s ‘Wanderer Fantasy’ – cyclic themes, a set of variations on a song etc – and they prove to be fine companion pieces.
One critic has called Kantorow ‘Liszt reincarnated’, but equally he might be the image of the young Brahms. First, you can take his peerless technical ability for granted. Next, he is blessed with a remarkable personal sound: it has the quality of a dark, warm roar from deep within the instrument, huge, highly coloured, but never harsh or ugly. There’s a hint of ‘golden age’ imaginative freedom in his singerly phrasing, allowing steady accompaniments to support the liberated voice. And there’s a certain innocence, too, about his take on this repertoire: as if he has stripped away the intervening centuries of cynicism to restore the music to its untainted, youthful ardour.
The Brahms sonata’s first movement is full of ideally articulated light and shade, the harmonies deeply felt, the melodies shaped and coloured with both spontaneity and care. In the slow movement’s variations, each fresh thought adds another layer of magic. The scherzo and finale bound forward with headlong, exhilarating momentum, and yet the colour and the detail is never sacrificed to sheer speed. I’ve not heard such a magnificent recording of it since Krystian Zimerman’s from 1980 (which was never issued on CD).
The Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions are all related to the idea of the Wanderer, as curtain-raiser to the Fantasy. Kantorow delves deep into the gothic darkness of ‘Die Stadt’ and ‘Am meer’, his sound ideally creating the atmosphere. ‘Der Müller und der Bach’ is phrased with declamatory freedom
and fantasy, as is ‘Frühlingsglaube’, where Kantorow passes silky legato between the registers and fills the textures with exquisitely gradated points of light.
Finally, a positively stupendous performance of the ‘Wanderer Fantasy’ crowns the album. Kantorow makes light of the piece’s notorious challenges, giving it lashings of sweep, swagger and otherworldly, poetic urgency. The central section takes the idea of foreboding and obsession to new levels, before the triumphant scherzo, fugue and coda wrap the Wanderer theme up in glittering cascades of starshine. Jessica Duchen