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Franz Schubert etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Franz Schubert etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

Franz Schubert: Octet in F major – Musicians of Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra – Megaron Athens Concert Hall, Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, 11-13.03.2021 (Premiere: 11.03.2021, 20:30, Live streaming)

















Like comparable works by Spohr, Hummel and others, Schubert's irresistible Octet is a late offshoot of the eighteenth-century tradition of serenades scored for mixed wind and strings. And together with the B flat Piano Trio, D.898, it comes closer than any of his other late instru­mental works to the popular image of the companionable, echt-Viennese composer pouring out a stream of spontaneously inspired melody. We owe its existence to Count Ferdinand Troyer, a talented amateur clarinettist who was chief steward at the court of Beethoven's friend and pupil, Archduke Rudolf. Early in 1824 the count proposed that Schubert write a follow-up to Beethoven's Septet, which to its composer's intense irritation had become a runaway success. (When Beethoven learnt of its triumph in England he was heard muttering that the work should be burned.) Schubert duly obliged, adding a second violin to the Septet's line-up of clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass, and broadly following Beethoven's six-movement plan: he likewise prefaced the outer movements with a slow introduction, included both a scherzo and a minuet, and between them inserted a set of variations on a popular-sounding theme.

After visiting the composer some time during February 1824, the painter Moritz von Schwind wrote to their mutual friend Franz von Schober: "Schubert has now long been at work on an octet, with the greatest enthusiasm. If you go and see him during the day he says ‘Hello. How are you?’ and carries on working, whereupon you leave". Schubert completed the score on 1 March, and the first performance took place at the home of a Viennese nobleman, Anton, Freiherr von Spielmann, later that month. Besides Troyer himself, the players included the renowned violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh and several others who had given the premiere of Beethoven's Septet nearly a quarter of a century earlier. Although there was another private performance of the Octet at the home of Franz Lachner in 1826, its first public airing, with most of the original players, was not until April 1827, in the hall of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Some contemporary reports found it too long, though the Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitung called it "friendly, agreeable and interesting", and "worthy of the composers well-known talents" – a revealing counter to the old myth that Schubert worked in virtual obscurity, appreciated only by a circle of close friends.

With its melodic and rhythmic elan and its kaleidosco­pically varied colours, the Octet, like Mozart's great wind serenades, raises the hedonistic spirit of the late eighteenth-century divertimento to a supreme level. Its scoring is endless­ly inventive: at times, especially in the outer movements and scherzo, Schubert uses the ensemble like a small orchestra, with the two violins in octaves and sharp contrasts between solo and tutti sonorities; at others, especially in the Adagio and minuet, string and wind colours are blended with the finesse of true chamber music. If the Octet, in keeping with its diver­timento origins, is fundamentally genial and relaxed, the work is shot through with that sense of yearning, of the evanescence of beauty, that haunts Schubert’s later music; and once or twice – in the brooding coda of the Adagio, or the slow introduction of the finale – we glimpse the dark, depressive world of the String Quartets in A minor and D minor that Schubert composed virtually simultaneously with the Octet.

The imposing, tonally wide-ranging introduction imme­diately announces a dotted motif which is to permeate the following Allegro and influence many of the ideas in later movements. Just before the Allegro clarinet and then horn sound a rising octave figure, again in dotted rhythm, which likewise has echoes later in the work. For all its breezy exuberance, the Allegro itself is tightly argued and unified – reminding us of a much-quoted letter to the painter Leopold Kupelwieser in which Schubert declared that he had composed the Octet and the two quartets of 1824 in preparation for "a grand symphony". The ubiquitous opening phrase of the first theme underpins the second subject, sounded on the clarinet in a plangent D minor and then repeated by the horn in F major. With typical unorthodoxy, Schubert long delays settling in the expected dominant key, C major, which only arrives, with a flurry of violin semiquavers, after protracted ruminations on the main theme. The tautly worked development – so much for Schubert's supposed prolixity – glides immediately into the strange and remote key of F sharp minor: here the second subject acquires a yearning continuation on the clarinet, and is then transformed more radically, first by the clarinet, then by second violin and viola in imitation, against the pervasive leaping dotted figure on the first violin. After a breathtaking sideslip to A flat major the wind trio intones a chorale-like theme rhythmically akin to the slow introduction; the connec­tion is underlined when Schubert brings back the introduction's opening phrases just before the recapitulation, reinforcing the close integration of introduction and Allegro. A speeded-up version of the main theme launches the coda, promising a rousing send-off. But then, in a moment of pure romantic poetry, the pulse relaxes for a final, nostalgic reminiscence of the second subject, sounded on the horn as if from the depths of the forest.

The Adagio, somewhere between a barcarolle and a lullaby, is one of Schubert's loveliest, opening with a dream of a melody for his clarinettist patron and constantly enriched by the composer's genius for devising ravishing countermelodies. Though the movement is cast in abridged sonata form (without a central development), the abiding impression is of a timeless flow of glorious, almost improvisatory lyricism. After the reprise of the main theme, first on the violin in counterpoint with the horn, then on cello and clarinet, Schubert offsets the lack of a formal development section in dramatic series of modulations. The coda begins serenely enough, with the violins playing in canon; but then a sudden violent off-beat accent for pizzicato cello and bass heralds a weird, disquieting passage where, in a slow crescendo, the clarinet broods obsessively on the movement's opening phrase over anxiously palpitating strings.

This momentary glimpse of the abyss is summarily banished in the bracing scherzo, a delightfully bucolic movement with overtones of the hunt (and more dotted rhythms) – though amid the alfresco jollity Schubert is always likely to surprise us with sudden shifts to distant keys. High spirits are more subdued in the trio, with its smooth, shapely melody, initially for string quartet alone, over a stalking cello line. For his variation movement Schubert pilfered a cheerful, homely duet from his unperformed comic opera of 1815, Die Freunde von Salamanka ("The Friends from Salamanca"). Following classical precedent, the first four variations, all rooted to the home key of C major, are essentially decorative, with first violin, horn and cello in turn taking the limelight. But the fifth in C minor – eerie, scurrying night music that pre-echoes the "Ride to Hell" in Berlioz's Damnation of Faust – and the sixth in A flat, which dissolves the theme in tender, luminous polyphony, are romantic character pieces. Sentiment is wickedly undercut in the final variation, where the winds do a comic take on a village band against a hyperactively cavorting violin.

Like some of Beethoven's minuets – most famously that of the eighth Symphony – Schubert's fifth movement is a stylized, faintly nostalgic re-creation of the classical courtly dance. It is surely no coincidence that the initial dotted figure is identical to the pervasive motif of the opening movement. The first section closes with a naggingly memorable cadential phrase featuring both triplets and dotted rhythms; in the second part, after a poetic dip from C to A flat, this is delici­ously expanded by the clarinet before the music dissolves in a chromatic haze. The lolloping Ländler trio (whose opening phrase inverts the minuet's dotted upbeat) again conjures up village band associations. After a repeat of the minuet the hushed, twilit coda introduces a romantically evocative horn solo that inevitably calls to mind the close of the first movement.

With its ghostly tremolandos, steepling crescendos and labyrinthine tonality, the finale's introduction creates a scene of high drama. Shades, perhaps, of the Wolf's Glen in Weber's Der Freischütz, a favourite opera of Schubert's. But the doom-laden dotted figures in wind and upper strings also echo the bleak Schiller setting "Die Götter Griechenlands" ("The Gods of Greece") which Schubert quoted in the contemporary A minor Quartet. Grand guignol or a personal confession? Whatever the composer's intent, this introduction is startling in the context of such a generally cheerful work. After the music has sub­sided to a ppp shudder, the tonality clears to a cloudless F major for the brisk, bristling march theme of the Allegro. A smoother subsidiary idea, still in F major, leads to a chirpy second subject (linked to the main theme by its persistent trilling motif) that could have fast-talked its way straight out of a Rossini opera. But the comedy quickly takes a serious turn as Schubert puts the trilling figure through its paces in strenuous imitation. Another plunge from C to A flat signals the development, where the march theme is subjected to tense contrapuntal treatment through an audacious series of modu­lations. Then, after a lull and an exciting protracted crescendo, the recapitulation enters, à la Beethoven, in a triumphant fortissimo.

Schubert reserves his biggest dramatic coup for the closing pages, where the music of the slow introduction crashes in without warning, now made even more ominous by eerie flourishes from the first violin. But the oppressive atmosphere is quickly dispelled by the coda, which speeds up the march theme and transforms it into an increasingly riotous rustic dance.

Source: Richard Wigmore, 2002 (hyperion-records.co.uk)

 The live broadcast is over

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

♪ Octet in F major, D.803 (1824)

i. Adagio – Allegro
ii. Adagio
iii. Allegro vivace
iv. Andante
v. Menuetto: Allegretto
vi. Andante molto – Allegro

Musicians of Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra:
Alexandra Soumm, violin
Giorgos Banos, violin
Alkistis Missouli, viola
Anastasia Deligiannaki, cello
Konstantinos Sifakis, double bass
Dionysis Grammenos, clarinet
Andreas Anthopoulos, bassoon
Angelos Sioras, horn

Megaron Athens Concert Hall, Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, 11-13.03.2021

Premiere: 11.03.2021, 20:30 (Live streaming)

(HD 1080p)

















The Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra, founded in 2017 by conductor Dionysis Grammenos, consists of young Greek musicians from all over Greece as well as Greek musicians living abroad. Based on European standards, the GYSO is mainly aimed at the identification, guidance, education and promotion of talented young musicians in the symphonic and operatic repertoire under the guidance of internationally renowned soloists and principals of Greek and major European orchestras.

Participation of young musicians in GYSO's programmes is free of charge through the funding that GYSO secures. Alongside the Orchestra's work, special attention is given to educational programmes for the youth audience as well as to the young audience's accessibility to its concerts, as it wishes to pass on to the new generation the quality and values that this kind of music stands for. The GYSO aspires in this way to contribute to the creation of a music-loving flow and a musical platform for young musicians and the youth audience, thus enhancing the musical dialogue of the new generation.

During its three years of existence, more than 100 Greek musicians have been selected, after auditions, to perform with the orchestra, and over 1,500 young people have attended its educational activities. So far, the GYSO has given nine concerts in Greece, featuring world-class soloists, and two composers have been commissioned to write new works for the Orchestra.

Recent highlights include the recording of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 and Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No.2, featuring the internationally acclaimed Greek pianist Vassilis Varvaressos, as well as the participation of GYSO's musicians under Ricardo Muti for performances of Beethoven's Symphony No.9 in Athens and Ravenna, in cooperation with the Athens & Epidaurus Festival.

The work of the GYSO has recently been recognised with its nomination as a new member of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras (EFNYO). Through its collaboration with EFNYO, the GYSO will give its musicians the opportunity to represent the orchestra abroad, partnering with other European National Youth Orchestras within the framework of the MusXchange exchange programme, which is co-funded by the European Commission's Creative Europe Program.

The Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra operates with funding from the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation. The GYSO is supported by The Hellenic Initiative (THI) and the Non-Profit Civil Company AEGEAS. Since October 2020 it is the new Orchestra in Residence at Megaron the Athens Concert Hall.

Source: megaron.gr

















Hailed by "Die Welt" as "one of the most promising stars of tomorrow", the young Greek conductor Dionysis Grammenos made his debut at the age of twenty-one with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Recent highlights include his debut with the Cameristi della Scala and Khatia Buniatishvili, his return to the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto to work with Johannes Debus on a production of Eugene Onegin and to the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, with a program including Brahms' Second Symphony and Elgar's "In the South". He conducted the Athens State Orchestra for the opening concert of the season (Brahms' First Symphony) and made his debuts with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the Chamber Orchestra of Belgium (Mozart's Magic Flute).

For the 2020-2021 season, Grammenos will be the Principal Conductor of the English Touring Opera, for the production of Puccini's La Bohème and will conduct the Athens State Orchestra in a concert dedicated to the 200 years since the Greek revolution. In addition, he will conduct a video recording of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and Skalkotas Violin Suite, with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra.

Grammenos has conducted orchestras such as the Festival Strings Lucerne, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Hofer Symphoniker, Odessa Philharmonic, Junge Philharmonie Wien, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Malta Philharmonic and the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia.

In 2016, he received a Conducting Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and was recently selected by David Zinman to conduct the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, as part of his annual masterclass. He has been mentored by conductors including Bernhard Haitink, Patrick Summers and Robert Spano.

Dionysis Grammenos is Founder and Music Director of the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 2017, the orchestra aims to showcase and educate young talented Greek musicians in the symphonic and operatic repertoire. The GYSO is a member of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras and has been invited to perform at the Berlin Konzerthaus, for the opening concert of the Young Euro Classic Festival. Since October 2020, it is the new Orchestra in Residence at Megaron the Athens Concert Hall.

Passionate about opera, Grammenos has made his opera conducting debut in Würzburg with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and has conducted a gala programme including Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni with the Greek Youth Symphony. Further operatic experience includes Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Canadian Opera Company and La Clemenza di Tito at the Aspen Music Festival, as well as Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Theatre Vorpommern.

Initially trained as a clarinetist at the University of Music "Franz Liszt" in Weimar, Grammenos was the first ever wind player to win the Grand Prix d'Eurovision from the European Broadcasting Union and the title of "European Young Musician of the Year". In 2013-2014 he was selected for the ECHO Rising Stars program, which took him to some of Europe's most prestigious venues.

As a soloist, he has worked with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cameristi del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, among others, and has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Barbican London, KKL in Lucerne and the Philharmonie Berlin.

His debut CD as a clarinetist on the Naïve label features works by Spohr, Nielsen and Debussy with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Ari Rasilainen. He has also recorded transcriptions by Schumann and Schubert in collaboration with the harpist Anneleen Lenaerts for Warner Classics.

Dionysis Grammenos has been honoured with the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts and the Gold Medal of the City of Athens. He was recently selected for the European Young Leaders programme, under the patronage of Jean-Claude Juncker.

Source: dionysisgrammenos.com

















An unforgettable Christmas: Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustaf Nordqvist, Engelbert Humperdinck, Franz Schubert, Martin Luther, Irving Berlin, Kalle Moraeus, Nino Rota, Emmy Kohler, Leroy Anderson, Lars-Erik Larsson – Sara Trobäck, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's Brass Ensemble, Tomas von Brömssen (HD 4K)














Musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra play atmospheric Christmas music with actor Tomas von Brömssen as guide.

Immortal music that is recycled in Sweden every Christmas: Schubert's "Military March", "White Christmas", "Christmas, Christmas, glorious Christmas" and many more. Melodies we long for. There will also be a short surprise with an accordion by the campfire.

Tomas von Brömssen looks forward to the coming holiday: Christmas as an oasis in the winter darkness with bells, mulled wine and the delicious food. And music that gives that extra shine to the Christmas atmosphere from the musicians' brass instruments. Share the experience with us! Presented in Swedish.

Recorded at Gothenburg Concert Hall, in December 2020.


An unforgettable Christmas

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major, BWV 1048, i. Allegro
Gustaf Nordqvist: Jul, jul, strålande jul (Christmas, Christmas, Glorious Christmas)
Engelbert Humperdinck: Abendsegen from "Hänsel und Gretel"
Franz Schubert: Marche Militaire, Op.51 No.1
Martin Luther: Away in a Manger
Irving Berlin: White Christmas
Kalle Moraeus: Koppången
Nino Rota: Theme for Federico Fellini's film "La Strada"
Emmy Kohler: Now Shine a Thousand Candles Bright
Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride
Lars-Erik Larsson: Winter's Tale, Op.18, iv. Epilogue

Sara Trobäck, violin

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's Brass Ensemble

Tomas von Brömssen, actor 

(HD 4K / 2160p)





































































































See also


Yekwon Sunwoo plays Franz Schubert (Piano Sonata in C minor) & Maurice Ravel (La Valse) – Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Quarterfinal Round Recital (HD 1080p)














Gold medalist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 31-year-old Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo plays Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958, and Maurice Ravel's La Valse, M.72, transcription for Piano Solo. The recital recorded at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Bass Performance Hall, in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 30, 2017.


Franz Schubert's last three piano sonatas, written between the spring and autumn of 1828, the last year of his life, are often considered as a group, sharing many elements of structure and form. He performed the three sonatas at a concert for his friends on 28 September 1828, and in October offered them to his publisher, Probst, who was not interested. Schubert's health, already weak, rapidly deteriorated and he died on 19 November 1828, at the age of thirty-one.

The Sonata in C minor, like the others in the group of three, is strongly influenced by Beethoven, at whose funeral the previous year Schubert had been a pall-bearer. The opening of the Allegro first movement of this sonata is very close to the theme of Beethoven's 32 Piano Variations on a theme (catalogue WoO80), which is also in C minor. There are also reminiscences of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata, No.8 Op.13, again in C minor. The second subject is a chorale-like tune in E flat major, the relative major to C minor.

After the repeat of the exposition section, the development continues chromatically, exploring distant keys. At the recapitulation there is a return to the tonic, and the coda dies away in reminiscences of the development section.

The second movement, Adagio, is in A flat major, and structured A-B-A-B-A. Its tranquil opening theme is developed in a way that gives it a darker quality, and in the B sections there is intense chromaticism and forceful, emotion-laden chords. The second appearance of the A and B sections is a semitone higher than before.

The third movement is a menuetto and trio, but far darker and more sombre in mood than the usual classical minuet. The menuetto is in C minor, in two parts, each repeated, the second part containing two bar-long rests that give a disquieting feeling that persists to the end of the movement. The trio is in A flat major, structured A-B-A, with the B section in E flat major.

The sonata-form final movement, Allegro, is again in C minor, and has a rapid, racing 6/8 rhythm reminiscent of a tarantella or a moto perpetuo. The first theme moves from C minor to C major, while the second moves towards C sharp minor. A new theme enters in the development section, progressing to a climax which introduces the recapitulation in which the first theme reappears in shortened form. The wild leaps and bounding arpeggios give the movement a liveliness that is offset by its predominantly minor key colouring, and leave something of the flavour of a dance of death.

Source: Simon Rees, 2019


Maurice Ravel's La valse, M.72, was originally written for orchestra. Ravel later transcribed it for two pianos and finally for piano solo.


Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

♪ 
Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958 (1828) [2:38]*

i. Allegro
ii. Adagio
iii. Menuetto: Allegro
iv. Allegro


Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

♪ La Valse, 
M.72 (1919-1920), (Transcription for Piano Solo) [36:25]


Yekwon Sunwoo, piano

Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Quarterfinal Round Recital, Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 30, 2017

(HD 1080p)

* Start time of each work















Gold medallist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Yekwon Sunwoo has been hailed for his "unfailingly consistent excellence" (International Piano) and celebrated as "a pianist who commands a comprehensive technical arsenal that allows him to thunder without breaking a sweat" (Chicago Tribune). A powerful and virtuosic performer, he also, in his own words, "strives to reach for the truth and pure beauty in music".

The first Korean to win Cliburn Gold, Yekwon's 2019-2020 season includes appearances with Fort Worth and Tuscon Symphonies and the Bucheon Philharmonic and debuts with Washington Chamber Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish Radio Orchestra amongst others as well as a debut appearance at the Vail Festival with Dallas Symphony. Recital highlights include Four Season Arts, San Antonio Arts and the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg. 2020-2021 will see Yekwon make his debut with Orchestra Chambre de Paris and Tugan Sokhiev and return to KBS Symphony with Jaap Van Zweden.

In previous seasons, he has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, Houston Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Sendai Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra amongst others. Recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie, Salle Cortot and Kumho Art Hall.

An avid chamber musician, Yekwon's collaborators include Benjamin Beilman, Linus Roth, Andrei Ioniță, Sebastian Bohren, Isang Enders, Tobias Feldmann, Gary Hoffman, Anne-Marie McDermott and the Jerusalem and Brentano Quartets. He has also toured Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama with the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, performed at Chamber Music of Lincoln Center's Inside Chamber Music Lectures and been invited to the Summit Music, Bowdoin International and Toronto Summer Music Festivals.

In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, Yekwon won first prizes at the 2015 International German Piano Award, the 2014 Vendome Prize held at the Verbier Festival, the 2013 Sendai International Music Competition and the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competiton.

Born in 1989 in Anyang, South Korea, Yekwon began learning the piano at the age of 8 and made his recital and orchestral debuts in Seoul at 15. His teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Robert McDonald, Richard Goode and Bernd Goetzke.

In 2017, Decca Gold released Cliburn Gold 2017 two weeks after Yekwon was awarded the Gold Medal and includes his award-winning performances of Ravel's La Valse and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata.

A self-proclaimed foodie, Yekwon enjoys finding Pho in each city he visits and takes pride in his own homemade Korean soups.

Source: yekwonsunwoo.com































































More photos


See also






Franz Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, arr. for Viola and String Orchestra – Richard O'Neill, New York Classical Players, Dongmin Kim (HD 1080p)














Accompanied by the New York Classical Players under the baton of the South Korean conductor Dongmin Kim, the American violist Richard O'Neill performs Franz Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821, arranged for Viola and String Orchestra by Dobrinka Tabakova. The concert was recorded at W83 Concert Hall, New York, on May 1, 2015.



In 1824, disappointed by the recent failure of his opera, Alfonso und Estrella (despite the fact that he considered it one of his finest works), Schubert returned to instrumental music on a smaller scale. As Bach had been stimulated by the recent invention of a five-string cello (with a top E string) to emphasise the Sixth Suite's position as the crowning glory of the set by writing in a higher register for the instrument than in the previous five suites, Schubert was clearly motivated by the arrival of the six-stringed arpeggione, a strange hybrid of a bowed instrument with the extended range and possibility of fast and accurate leaps and runs facilitated by its Classical-guitar-like stringing (E-A-D-G-B-E). The incorporation of frets was designed to make playing easier and intonation more accurate – Schubert was obviously unaware of the potential flaws of this new instrument, namely the difficulty of crossing strings cleanly due to a reduced differential angle at the bridge, the limited dynamic range, (the arpeggione was a smaller-bodied and quieter instrument than the cello, one on which application of too much downward pressure of the bow would result in hitting adjacent strings) and the restriction of expressive powers that was the inevitable consequence of the use of frets. It seems likely that Schubert typically wrote this sonata largely as a friendly gesture towards the instrument's inventor, Vincenz Schuster. The increasing dynamic range of the piano would have made balance and projection even more problematic – no wonder that, after little more than ten years, the arpeggione succumbed to rapid extinction.


Schubert was born into a musical world dominated by the colossal figure of Beethoven. It is a mark of how much the younger man was in awe of the great master that on his deathbed he asked that his body should be buried in a grave next to that of his idol (which it was). Compositionally there are many similarities between these two composers, most obviously their use of predominantly Classical forms and their prowess in almost all areas of instrumental and vocal writing with the notable exception of opera. This said, Schubert appears the more introverted and perhaps the more sensitive and fragile of the two, generally more at home in the smaller, more intimate forms of music-making (quartets, sonatas and of course Lieder) than in larger scale works. And while Schubert's later symphonic works are second to none, it is interesting to note that he was one of very few Classical composers never to write a concerto – it was against his nature to write a piece with the intention of showing off his own ability or those of the performer and instrument he was writing for. And while Beethoven would frequently struggle to find a theme or melody for his work, with Schubert this was an apparently effortless process – all came from song (Schubert wrote more than 600 Lieder). Beethoven's later experimentation with form made him a revolutionary, but with Schubert it is the predominance of melody, and especially the emotion it conveys, that sees him moving towards Romanticism.

The Arpeggione Sonata was written in 1824, soon after the Schöne Müllerin song cycle and shortly before the Great C major Symphony of 1825-1828 and the C major String Quintet of 1827, perhaps his finest instrumental works. It is written on a smaller scale, with three movements: a sonata form allegro moderato, a heartfelt, singing adagio and an allegretto rondo movement whose interludes are bursting with variety and energy.

The first movement, in A minor, is imbued throughout with a touching blend of sadness and joy (as was Schubert's own life), the beauty, sensitivity and lyricism of its first theme contrasting with the carefree nonchalance of the second, a shattering outburst of pain (like Gretchen's scream) at the climax of the development section leading through the recapitulation to the last breaths of the instruments and culminating in the death sentence of the two closing chords.

The theme of the second movement in E Major, unfolding like a love song, is clearly derived from the Larghetto of Beethoven's Second Symphony and for a while shares the simplicity of the Largo of Chopin's later Cello Sonata. However, a sinister undercurrent emerges, threatening the tranquil beauty of this world and anticipating the icy bleakness of the Winterreise. The movement ends, like its predecessor, in an experience close to death, the pace slowing almost to a complete stop before finding the most fragile of lifelines to carry the music through to the finale.

The last movement begins as an ecstatic rondo, the gushing theme predominantly bathed in the sunshine of A Major, interspersed with energetic, lively interludes with traces of folk idioms and demanding considerable virtuosity from both performers. A nostalgic piano solo temporarily eclipses the spotlight on the string instrument before the final return of the rondo theme, ending with one of the many rising arpeggios that characterise this work, a positive and satisfying end to a composition that has reflected the whole gamut of human experience.

Source: David Kenedy (hyperion-records.co.uk)



Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

♪ Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821, arranged for Viola and String Orchestra by Dobrinka Tabakova (1824)


i. Allegro moderato [00:36]*
ii. Adagio [09:43]
iii. Allegretto [14:14]

Richard O'Neill, viola

The New York Classical Players
Conductor: Dongmin Kim

W83 Concert Hall, New York, May 1, 2015

(HD 1080p)

* Start time of each part















Why Do String Players Still Love Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata?

By Inge Kjemtrup

April 1, 2018

Schubert's delicate "Arpeggione" Sonata was written for an instrument that is virtually extinct. Why has this piece endured and why do modern players like violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Gautier Capuçon love to play it?

Within the three movements of Franz Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata in A minor, D.821, are poignant melodies from the great master of the lieder set alongside sparkling virtuosic passages. The sonata is a satisfying piece for performer and audience. It's hugely popular, even though the arpeggione, the instrument for which it was originally composed, is now almost forgotten.

The best performances of the sonata make it sound effortlessly beautiful, a result that can only come about through long hours of practice. "The most difficult thing is to reach simplicity with beautiful expression", says Madrid-based violist Wenting Kang. "It's easy to do too much and it's easy to do too little." It's also essential to capture the tender character of the sonata, which was written when Schubert was already ill with what was almost certainly syphilis, which would kill him four years later. "You can feel the fragility in the music and I think it's very touching", comments cellist Gautier Capuçon. Violist Antoine Tamestit, who made the sonata the centerpiece of his 2010 release, says that it is "not a showpiece. It's an intimate piece".

Schubert wrote the sonata in 1824 and dedicated it to Vincenz Schuster, a virtuoso and champion of the arpeggione. The fretted, six-stringed arpeggione  then known as bowed guitar, violoncello guitar, or guitarre d'amore – is connected to the viol family. The instrument seems to have been devised concurrently in 1823 by Viennese luthier Johann Georg Staufer (or Stauffer) and Hungarian luthier Peter Teufelsdorfer. Tuned E-A-D-G-B-E like a guitar, the arpeggione is held between the knees without the support of an endpin. A scant handful of the original instruments have survived, and can be seen in museums, including the music collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Schuster commissioned other composers to write for the arpeggione and even wrote a tutorial himself, but the instrument's fame was fleeting. After Schubert's death in 1828, the sonata was also forgotten. It did not appear in print until 1871, and included a transcription for cello.

British viol maker Shem Mackey was commissioned to build an arpeggione by a viol player and shares some of his extensive research with me. Mackey observes that Staufer's arpeggiones reflect his work as a guitar maker (Schubert owned one of his guitars) and his first arpeggiones had guitar-shaped bodies and sound holes. By 1825, however, his arpeggiones had taken on cello attributes, such as the body shape and f-holes (the Met Museum arpeggione, from 1831, is of this type). All of Staufer's arpeggiones had flat backs, like the viol.

Today the arpeggione is played by a very small number of people around the world. UCLA music professor, guitarist, and composer Peter Yates is one of them, though he didn't set out to be an arpeggione player. "I needed a bowed guitar", he explains, and so he built his own. Talking to Yates, I begin to understand why the arpeggione didn't endure. "Finding the right strings and stringing them is difficult", he says. Plus "holding the instrument is awkward".

But Yates enjoys performing Schubert's sonata on his arpeggione. "The fingerings, the shape of the arpeggios all fall gracefully." The instrument is softer than a modern stringed instrument and the strings resonate sympathetically. "With six strings you can't play as aggressively", Yates says. "You can't set a degree of pressure on one string because you'd get two strings instead of one." Unfortunately, the arpeggione's gentle sound also contributed to its short life, as it couldn't compete against increasingly louder violin-family instruments, nor could it be heard in the new, bigger halls.

I ask Yates what advice he would give a modern player, based on his experience on the arpeggione. He advises "articulated nuance", something that's easier to accomplish on a fretted instrument. He also urges that a modern player "stay away from bel canto, smeared-on sound as much as possible" and study Schubert's articulations in the manuscript. "There's lots of detail in the notation", he says.

All of the modern players I speak to have studied Schubert's manuscript. Tamestit takes it one step further. "I play directly from the manuscript. It is so full of information", he says, although he finds the Henle iPad app, with its many links and notes, to be useful, too. Capuçon works from the latest Bärenreiter edition, though he comments that "even if you have an urtext edition, some things are still unclear. I teach my students that they have to use their brains!"

Composers, like doctors, have a reputation for illegible writing, and Schubert is no exception. His accents, which resemble a child's drawing of a bird in the sky, are a puzzle. "Some are crescendos, some are accents", says Tamestit. "That accent plus fortepiano: Is it a double accent? Is it a decrescendo?" asks Capuçon. "All this is written by the composer to emphasize one syllable in a phrase. It's like when we talk and we take more time with one word. So does the accent fit in a phrase, does it work? Do you do crescendo until ff or until the middle of the phrase? The music gives us the answer."

Like so much of Schubert's music – especially the lieder – the "Arpeggione" sonata's mood shifts rapidly. "It goes between A minor and A major", says Tamestit. "It's hopeful, sad, nostalgic, and sweet." It's also very quiet throughout. "The fortes are moments of great passion that don't last", he adds.

How much or how little vibrato to use is another issue for a performer. Kang uses little vibrato, adding expression with the bow instead. "I always imagine how the composer heard it. [The arpeggione] is not a Romantic instrument. The right hand can do so much with sound and color change."

The sonata's first movement shifts between the tender melody and brilliant virtuoso passages, making it hard to decide on the opening tempo. For Kang, her sense of the "foggy, rainy mood" and her view that "Allegro moderato means never too fast" helps her with this. Capuçon uses his tempo in the virtuoso passages to determine the tempo of the opening. Tamestit's tempo choice is based on his observation that the opening melody is in four, while the virtuoso passages, which must be "made as fluid and light as possible", are in two.

A modern player must diverge from the score at several points because of the tessitura of the original instrument. This comes into play particularly with multi-octave runs (m. 79 in the first movement, for example) and octave jumps (m. 115 in the first movement). At m. 115, some players go an octave higher to underscore the drama of a rare ff moment, which is then followed by a mini-cadenza. "For me it has to work musically", says Kang. She does all she can to avoid breaking up Schubert's "beautiful long slurs".

The second movement is an Adagio in E major and it requires the long legato line be maintained. The Adagio is followed immediately by the Allegretto third movement. The Allegretto's rondo form provides plenty of opportunity for contrast, from a Hungarian style to a Viennese dance – in the latter "you need a little delay and lift", says Tamestit. The arpeggios in the third movement would have a rolling barcarolle effect on the arpeggione and modern players must work harder to achieve this. Unlike the arpeggione players, Tamestit notes, "we cannot play full chords – it's awkward".

Would the sonata be less awkward in a different key? That was the idea of German violist Hartmut Lindemann, who transcribed it from A minor to G minor. In G minor, he writes on his website, "The open strings of the viola assume the same role as did those of the arpeggione in the original A minor". Furthermore, "most of the difficult passage work can now be more easily executed".

Many professional musicians begin their study of the "Arpeggione" early in their careers. "The ‘Arpeggione’ has been one of my favorites since I was little", Tamestit explains. "At 12, I wasn't allowed to play it, but I did anyway, just to find the right sound." Capuçon comments that "Schubert is a composer that I always felt close to as a child".

For Kang, after having put the sonata to one side for many years, it was playing through the sonata recently with a sympathetic pianist – Paul Coker who had worked with Yehudi Menuhin – that made her return to it. "If the pianist doesn't understand Schubert, then it's just not good", she says.

Like Kang, Tamestit's interest in the sonata was revived by a pianist, in this case his long-time collaborator Markus Hadulla. Hadulla works with many singers, and when Tamestit came to rehearse at Hadulla's home, he found his gaze straying to the lieder scores atop the piano. He and Hadulla began playing the lieder "just for practicing" and then hit upon several that suited viola and piano, "making our own little lieder cycle". The two eventually recorded the "Arpeggione", along with a handful of lieder, and the stirring Der Hirt auf dem Felsen ("Shepherd on the Rock"), D.965, with French soprano Sandrine Piau.

Were he alive today, Vincenz Schuster would no doubt be disappointed by the arpeggione's limited popularity. But he could only be delighted that Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata – "a propaganda piece for an instrument", jokes Tamestit – lives on.

Source: stringsmagazine.com















One of the few violists to ever be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a 48th Annual GRAMMY Award Nomination (Best Soloist with Orchestra), Richard Yongjae O'Neill (born on December 31, 1978 in Sequim, Washington) is rising to international prominence as one of the most promising artists of his generation. Highlights from this season include appearances with the London Philharmonic led by Vladimir Jurowski, the Asian premiere of the Brett Dean Concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic led by Francois Xavier Roth, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra with Constantine Orbelian, a Live from Lincoln Center television broadcast for PBS with the Chamber Music Society, an appearance with the Emerson String Quartet and Leon Fleisher at the Mostly Mozart Festival in Avery Fisher Hall, and the release of his third album for Deutsche Grammophon. In recent seasons he has made debuts at the world's most prestigious halls including New York's Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, Paris' Salle Cortot and Seoul Arts Center. In 2008-2009 he will make his recital debut at the Kennedy Center, tour South Korea with Concerto Köln celebrating the release of his fourth album for ARCHIV/DG, and will return to London to perform with the London Philharmonic at the South Bank Centre. O'Neill has performed with many orchestras including the Los Angeles and Euroasian Philharmonics, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra among many others.

A highly accomplished chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Juilliard and Emerson String Quartets, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Kyung-Wha and Myung-Wha Chung, Kyoko Takezawa, Elmar Oliviera, Jamie Laredo, Joshua Bell, James Ehnes, Nicola Benedetti, Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffmann, Carter Brey, Edgar Meyer, Barry Douglas, Jon Nakamatsu, Garrick Ohlsson and Andre-Michel Schub, among others. He was a member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center, a residency that features the world’s most gifted young chamber musicians, and frequently returns to the Society. He also serves as principal violist of Santa Barbara-based Camerata Pacifica. He frequently tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. He has held the position of principal violist and soloist with Sejong (Opus 3 Artists). Festival appearances include Marlboro, Aspen, Bridgehampton, Casals, Chamber Music Northwest, IMS Prussia Cove, La Jolla, Mostly Mozart, Seattle as well as Bargemusic and Brooklyn.

A Universal Classics Recording Artist, his latest album "Winter Journey" for Deutsche Grammophon debuted this past October and has earned him a Platinum Disc Award: his debut album for Universal released in 2005 garnered him a Gold Disc Award. His second album was the unprecedented #1 Bestselling Classical (as well as International Pop) Recording for 2006, garnering him a Double Platinum Disc Award. In addition to his recording contract with Universal/DG, Mr. O'Neill is dedicated to recording lesser known music for labels such as Naxos, Bridge, Centaur and Tzadik: his recordings of Schoenberg and Webern for Naxos were the subject of an extensive New York Times article which described his performances as revelatory. His recording of Schoenberg's String Quartet Concerto as a member of the Fred Sherry String Quartet earned him a GRAMMY Nomination for Best Soloist with Orchestra. Recordings of Stravinsky's Elegy for Solo Viola as well as Schoenberg's String Trio, Ode to Napoleon and Third String Quartet are due to be released on Naxos in the coming year as well as his fourth solo album with Concerto Köln featuring Baroque repertoire for ARCHIV/DG.

No stranger to the media, he has been featured on television and radio broadcasts worldwide. A popular figure in Korea, he was the subject of a two-part, five-hour documentary for the Korean Broadcasting System that was broadcast to over 12 million people, and has been featured on all of the nation's major television networks, magazines and newspapers. He has also performed on CNN and PBS, served as a Young Artist-in-Residence for National Public Radio's Performance Today in Washington D.C., and has been broadcast on BBC-3, the CBC Live from the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, WQXR, WFMT, and most of the broadcast stations nationwide.

The first and only violist to receive the prestigious Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, he received degrees from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music (B.M.), graduating magna cum laude, and The Juilliard School (M.M.). He has studied with Paul Neubauer and Donald McInnes. Mr. O'Neill performs on a fine and rare viola made by Giovanni Tononi of Bologna, crafted in 1699.

Residing in New York City and Los Angeles, he was recently honored with a Proclamation from the New York City Council for his achievement and contribution to the arts. A dedicated teacher as well as performer, Mr. O'Neill serves on the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California, Los Angeles as its youngest member.

"Ravishing" — London Times

"An electric performance... a crackling, visceral, reading that held the audience in rapt attention" — New York Times

"First-rate" — New York Times

"Elegant, velvety tone" — New York Times

"A colorfully robust, expressive performance" — New York Times

"An astounding performance" — New York Sun

"Richard O'Neill was the real find of the evening" — New York Sun

"Technically immaculate" — Los Angeles Times

"Fierce virtuosity" — San Francisco Chronicle

"A rock solid performance that showcased the obvious ardency and skill of Richard Yongjae O'Neill" — Denver Post

"There was a new face that should be noted right away: violist Richard O'Neill made a smashing debut... the young musician is already making his way in the highly competitive world of music... O'Neill took every advantage with his big, resonant sound, facile technique and secure musicality. Over the past 25 years, the Seattle Chamber Music Society has introduced any number of important musicians to Seattle. O'Neill is the latest" — Seattle Post Intelligencer

Source: instantencore.com







































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World renowned Takács Quartet announces the appointment of violist Richard O'Neill from June 2020, and the retirement of Geri Walther after fifteen remarkable years

Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No.2 in D major – Alice Yoo, New York Classical Players, Dongmin Kim (4K Ultra High Definition)

Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 in C major – Michael Katz, New York Classical Players, Dongmin Kim (4K Ultra High Definition)