Customer Reviews

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 ; Schubert / Liszt: Wanderer-Fantasie

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The Wanderer Fantasy of Schubert is one of my favorite pieces of music. I cannot count the number of recordings of Schubert's monumental solo keyboard work I have. I have always wanted to like the Liszt arrangement with orchestra, but never heard a performance that came close to making sense of an orchestral part added on. I had given up on the thing. But I just got this CD, and the Berezovsky performance with Masur of the Liszt arrangement is handled with such an elegant touch, and never pulls back from the extra sentimentality that Liszt injected. Thank God, because they actually make a great success of the work. It actually gave more insight into the work, which is pretty incredible. By the way, I don't want to be picayune, but the previous reviewer's remark that the Liszt orchestration is akin to something Schubert would have done is very wide of the mark. It is pure Liszt, especially the Liszt of the First Piano Concerto. Berezovsky plays with that recognition, and I think that is why it works.

Anyone who was frustrated by Kurt Masur's tenure with the New York Phil. (and felt relief at his premature departure) will find reasons why with this colorless Schubert CD. Masur marches through the charming Sym. #3 with "militarized precision" as the Gramophone uts it. Tempos rattle off like clockwork, and Masur's pacing is impatient. It's irrelevant that the orchestra plays well and is recorded well by Teldec when the performance is DOA. The Unfinished is a masterpiece that neve flags despite overfamiliarity. Masur fares better here, in a proficient, straight-ahead reading that leaves no taste (or savor) behind.

Other CDs that pair the Third and Eighth (Carlos Kleiber on DG, Kubelik in a live performance on Audite) have no other filler, but here we get the 21 min. arrangement for piano and orchestra that Liszt made of the Wander Fantasie. It's been suggested that Schubert's tempetuous, forceful piano writing goes down easie with an orchestral bugger, and that seems true here in Boris Berezovsky's hands -- he never bangs and takes time to underline lyrical passages. There's sitll quite a lot of thunderous keyboard work, and Liszt's ingenious (and fairly Schubertian) orchetral part adds to one's enjoyment -- this is an honorable homage to Schubert, whom Liszt did much to promote. In any case, the performance is the best thing on an otherwise drab CD, largely because of Berezovsky's panache.