Schubert • Schumann
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Major, D850; Schumann: Kinderszenen Op. 15
Arcadi Volodos (piano)
Sony Classical 19658879292 65 mins
Arcadi Volodos prefaces this album with a revelatory interview.
Why does he prefer live recordings? ‘It’s a moment of truth that slips through our fingers, something fragile and unique. In the studio we can never entirely recapture this magic.’ And why is he so parsimonious with his performances? ‘One needs to have something personal to say.’ He has on occasion gone a whole year without giving a concert.
What is the challenge of Schubert? ‘Getting the basic outline’, he replies, ‘the absolute transparency...’ With the ‘Gasteiner’ Sonata on this recording, which was written when Schubert was happily holidaying at a spa, Volodos catches the prevailingly upbeat mood of the whole, and also the meditative beauty of the Con moto movement.
In his interview, Volodos stresses the importance of timbre and touch and of the infinite varieties of colouring available via the pedal. With this exquisite movement he allows himself free rein with all these variables.
What are the challenges of the composers he’s yoked together? Schubert is about ‘the unbroken flow of a musical idea’, whilst ‘Schumann is made up of contrasts’ and ‘moments of blinding intensity’. This is exactly how, in Volodos’s hands, these works come across.
With some of its pieces lasting just 30 seconds, Kinderszenen demands emotional truth rather than dazzling originality, but despite their brevity, the scenes emerge here with wonderful vividness. Why so? He opens his heart: ‘Scenes from Childhood are imbued with my love of my daughter, with the deep sentiment within my soul, with the light that shines in my heart, whenever I look at her...’
