Scharwenka: Works for Piano Violin & Cello

Scharwenka (Composer), Tanyel (Performer), Mordkovitch (Performer), Carr (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Tanyel, Mordkovitch, Carr
• Composer: Scharwenka
• Audio CD (July 18, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collins Classics
• ASIN: B000003VYU
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,267 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Pno Trio 1: I. Adagio sostenuto-Allegro con brio

2. Pno Trio 1: II. Andantino quasi Allegretto

3. Pno Trio 1: III. Scherzo-Vivace

4. Pno Trio 1: IV. Finale-Allegro molto quasi presto

5. Vn Son: I. Adagio sostenuto-Allegro appassionato

6. Vn Son: II. Romanze-Andante con moto

7. Vn Son: III. Finale-Presto agitato

8. Vc Son: I. Allegro ma non troppo

9. Vc Son: II. Andante

10. Vc Son: III. Vivace ma non troppo

11. Ser for Vn and Pno: Andante con moto, molto expressivo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review (from Gramophone), January 7, 2009

By 

Slobberer "Slobberer" (Astoria, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scharwenka: Works for Piano Violin & Cello (Audio CD)

Scharwenka Piano Trio No. 1 in F sharp minor. Op. 1^. Violin Sonata in D minor. Op. I*. Cello Sonata in E minor. Op. 46a15. Serenade, Op. 70'1. "Lydia Mordkovitch (vn); ''Colin Carr (vc); Seta Tanyel (pf). Collins Classics © 1448-2 (76 minutes: DDD: 10/95). Recorded 1995. Gramophone Editor's choice.

The sixth volume in Seta Tanyel's invaluable Scharwenka series takes us on an intriguing journey through innocence to experience. The Piano Trio owes a heavy debt to both Mendelssohn and Schumann, yet there is already so much to enjoy that one feels churlish for mentioning such influences. Even here familiar conventions are quickly discarded in favour of adventure (this is particularly true of the second movement, which happily foils a witty "March of the toys" with the most assuaging lyricism). Op. 2 gets off to an already more restless, exploratory start before whirling us away with true Allegro appassionato energy. The fire-spitting finale, too, is a surprise, particularly after the central "Romanze" or idyll. Then there is the Cello Sonata, a dark and weighty work with a finale most oddly related in its angularity to Faure's G minor Cello, Sonata (Scharwenka and Faure were almost exact contemporaries). Finally, the Serenade, played by Lydia Mordkovitch with great affection, returns us to an early salon melancholy. Here, then, is music for perfect late summer listening; accessible but piquant and easy to underestimate. However, the piano writing can be fiercely demanding and Seta Tanyel's performances are beyond praise. Few pianists have worn their virtuosity and musicianship with such enviable lightness. The recordings are, once again, superb.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars rediscoverd masterpieces of romantic chamber music, October 8, 2010

By 

Discophage (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Scharwenka: Works for Piano Violin & Cello (Audio CD)

In the early 1990s pianist Seta Tanyel embarked upon a recording of the complete piano music of the rather obscure Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924), best remembered for his four piano concertos, which seem to retain a small place at the fringe of the repertoire as vehicles for the display of virtuosity by great digital monsters, in the LP era (Earl Wild, Raymond Lewenthal, Michael Ponti) and still today (Stephen Hough, Marc-Andé Hamelin). That series (Scharwenka: Piano Works Vol. 1 - Piano Sonata Op. 6 / Polish National Dances Op. 3, Piano Works 2, Piano Works, Volume 3, Piano Works 4) was crowned in 1994 and 1995 by this and its companion disc (Piano Quartet / Piano Trio 2), featuring Scharwenka's complete chamber music: a sonata for violin and piano, one for cello and piano, a Serenade for violin and piano, two piano trios (all but the second piano trio are on the present disc) and a piano quartet.

These are early works in Scharwenka's career. The first piano trio is in fact his opus one, it was published in 1869 but probably composed a few years earlier, while Scharwenka was still a music student in Berlin (he entered the Berlin music school n 1865). Compute: this makes it the work of a 16 to 19 year-old. The Violin-piano Sonata is opus 2. On the other hand the Cello-Piano Sonata (as well as the second piano trio and piano quartet featured on the companion disc) is a composition of Scharwenka's early maturity: it dates from 1877 - which still makes it the work of a young man. Only the short Serenade for violin and piano is a later piece, from 1895.

Later in his career Scharwenka seems not to have set much store on his earlier chamber music compositions, giving more importance to his piano concertos and symphony. He must have forgotten. These are all magnificent compositions, of great romantic sweep.

OK, so Scharwenka isn't "modern". He follows, formally and stylistically, the Mendelssohn-Schumann-Brahms model. But to put things in perspective,, the premiere of Brahms' first Symphony was in 1876, and his mature (second) Piano Trio op. 87 is from 1882 (although some of his major chamber music works were already in existence when Scharwenka's first trio was published: the two string sextets, the piano quintet, the first two piano quartest, the horn trio, the first cello sonata). So when he wrote his own works, Scharwenka was "conservative", yes, in the same way that Brahms was considered to be by the advocates of Liszt and Wagner; Schoenberg redressed THAT perspective, and viewed from today, when the burning flames of aesthetic controversies have settled down as cold ashes, we can listen to the music of Scharwenka on its own terms.

I hear a distinct Brahmsian flavor in the first piano trio's superb, sweeping first movement (and again, remember when it was composed), but Scharwenka's opus one is even more indebted to Schumann (some cantering rhythms in the scherzo and finale are unmistakable), and certainly not inferior to Schumann in the wealth of its melodic invention and instrumental interplay. The second movement looks even further back: it is irresistibly Schubert-sounding (the Schubert of the marching rhythms of the 9th Symphony or some of the songs). These reminiscences are nothing surprising considering that it is an apprentice writing, and for all the reminiscences it brings to mind, the trio has nothing tentative about it; one rapidly gives up on the game of trying to spot the influences, to simply revel in the beauties of the music. From his opus one Scharwenka is a great inventor of soaring, intensely lyrical melodies, singing from the depths. I can't envision that amateurs of the chamber music of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms would not like it.

The Violin & Piano Sonata op. 2 is also a youthful work and the Schumann influence can be heard, but it is the best Schumann and Scharwenka pours in great romantic passion and sweep. The later Serenade may begin like salon-music, but it too develops to fine romantic sentiment. The Cello Sonata is an intensely songful work, and the Fauré similitude noted by the Gramophone review reproduced by the previous reviewer is an appropriate one: it is also much in evidence in the two magnificent compositions featured on the companion disc, the piano quartet and second piano trio.

It was great news to see that the score of the first piano trio (as well as those of the second trio and piano quartet) is available on free download from the International Music Score Library project. And so is the cello sonata, but Tanyel and Carr play in fact a later, substantially revised edition. Anyway, following with score, by drawing my ear on many details of composition, has further enhanced my admiration for these works. The three partners on this disc, Tanyel, Mordkovitch and Carr (Tanyel is joined by members of the Chilingirian Quartet on the companion issue), play superbly and with great tone.

Given the value of this music, it is simply incomprehensible that it isn't played and recorded more often. These recordings sadly do not seem to have spearheaded a Scharwenka chamber music revival: they remain the only ones of these compositions. The only other listing of a Scharwenka chamber music piece is of the second piano trio, an enigmatic entry on this website by the "Lake trio" on Cala records (Piano Trio 2), out-of-print and offered neither here nor on the European sister companies, and for which I have found no other trace on the Internet, even on the label's website. All the other discs of Scharwenka's chamber music that you find listed on this website are by Xaver's older brother Philipp.

With Collins Classics now dead there was a risk that these two discs would reach astronomical prices on the secondary market. Fortunately they've been reissued by Hyperion on a half-priced twofer (Chamber Music Complete). Amateurs of romantic chamber music, do not miss these.