Search - Schubert, Badura-Skoda :: Franz Schubert: Impromptus - Paul Badura-Skoda, Fortepiano

Admirable performances!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 03/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Artur Schnabel established an opportune observation when he affirmed in 1928 that the best piano music ever written after Beethoven was Schubert's piano music.



In the case of both sets of Impromptus I have always had the personal conviction, these Impromptus are so well articulated in spirit and adequate order that they can be seen as a Piano Sonata as a whole.



That 's why perhaps, there are so many recordings in the market and contrasting so few fortunate performances.



Badura Skoda's treatment of the epic in C minor must be a must for the player, so through this approach the listener a joyous refreshment in the adorable E Flat major when these cantabile arpeggios serve as a transient stage for the introspective moods of G Flat major, Skoda makes a lovely performance of the best known of the set the famous A flat major.



There are very interesting details when you face the Opus 142: for instance both Impromptus the first and the last one are written in the same tonality. The internal cohesion is even stronger than in Op. 90, there's less humor and more dramatic force. From the first bars of No. 1 F minor (please realize this tonality is the same employed by Brahms in his Third Symphony and Pastoral's Beethoven) and alludes to the maternal care. Schubert literally bewitches us with his spelling melody and introduces in a dreamily enchantment drenched by such melodic richness that it overpowers us. The cradle song of the A flat major and B flat major seemed to suggest we should keep in this dreamy and state. Finally the last Impromptu seems to bring back us to the Mother Earth and those bravura and obstinate figures are so close of the Moments Musicals as any other else.



There are other recommended performances of these notable pieces: Schnabel, Edwin Fisher, Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Serkin, Myra Hess, Andras Schiff, Radu Lupu, Badura Skoda in his twenties, Perahia and Christopher Eschenbach are excellent. options too. I don' t like Brendel's somniferous approach, Walter Gieseking's misunderstanding , the extremely coldness analytical Emil Gilels `pianism and neither Barenboim's excessively flat reading . I must confess I haven' t listened yet Volodos' Schubertso it would be unfair to emit any opinion in this sense.

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