Planet Earth
Lisa Maria Schachtschneider (piano)
rec. 2024(?), Kulturzentrum Immanuel, Wuppertal, Germany
ARS Produktion ARS38377 SACD [71]

Lisa Maria Schachtschneider’s recital is ostensibly to depict the aspects of the ancient elements, Water, Earth, Fire and Air whose characters still resonate within us even in our fast-paced modern world. There is also a secondary focus which for me seems more relevant in that female composers are featured in nearly every element alongside familiar music by male composers. I would have liked to have had a female composer’s take on fire but with some real rarities here this is a tiny niggle.

Maurice Ravel’s incredible Jeux d’Eau, sparkling and effervescent is an obvious choice for water as is, in its own reflective way Liszt’s gently lapping Wallenstadt’s Lake. Faustina Hasse Hodges was born in the UK and along with her three siblings she became an organist like her father. Four years after he left for America she followed and began to compose while teaching at the female seminary in Troy, new York. Her Lake Shore Dream is an engaging if rather sentimental song without words featuring a melody over suitably flowing accompaniment. In sharp contrast to these water pictures is Ruth Bakke’s In Memoriam whose stomping angry chords make protest at the destruction of a Norwegian lake. There is some lyrical material that might suggest an aquatic source but that is not the primary focus of this starkly angry work.

Morning Glories, the first of the five pieces in Amy Beach’s From Grandmother’s Garden might lead one to consider we are still water bound with its constant stream of swift arpeggios reaching to the sky but earth and its bounty is now the featured element. Its companions, the nostalgic Heartease, flirtatious mock baroque minuet Mignonette, sinuous Rosemary and Rue and whirlwind waltz Honeysuckle are all as gloriously idiomatic as we have come to expect from Beach’s gifted piano writing. There is plenty to explore in Beach’s catalogue but just one piano item in Martha von Castelberg’s; she came from a wealthy family and though she was well educated the idea of a music as a profession was completely off the table. Predominantly self-taught her vocal music, amounting to some seventy works, far exceeds her instrumental works which appear to include just three chamber works alongside this piano sonata, her only work for the instrument. Its three movements are in a late romantic idiom that leans heavily on the shoulders of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms; she was apparently fond of improvising at the piano and that is one side of the piece that comes across well. Schachtschneider has placed it as an earth piece remarking that the piece captivates with its spiritual depth and provides an ideal complement to the philosophical aspect of the earth element; that doesn’t come across to me though it is a pleasant piece played well.

Moving on and Debussy’s voiles introduces the element of air. Sophie Gräfin Wolf Baudissin’s two little character pieces, shooting stars and snow flurries and sunlight, are very attractive little miniatures which stylistically reflect the environment in which she lived, numbering Mendelssohn and Schumann amongst her friends as well as having taken lessons with Adolf von Henselt, Johan Pixis and Ferdinand Hiller. She was also a busy writer of childrens’ stories. The two piano pieces, collectively called Träumereien, musings or daydreams, would fit beautifully right alongside a work such as Kinderszenen in a recital. I would like to hear more of her relatively small output of songs and piano solos. The violent air of Liszt’s mountain storm Orage takes us to the other extreme of this element. Debussy once again introduces the final element fire with his spectacular firework display Feux d’artifice, its bright contrasts startling against Skriabin’s primal poem Toward the flame, one of his very final pieces. I am pleased to see more pianists taking up Guido Agosti’s stunning transcription of the Firebird, a wonderful partner to Stravinsky’s own Three movements from Petrushka. The score of danse infernale seems to suggest that at least three hands are required and listening to it does nothing to suggest otherwise. Its extravagant depiction of the firebird’s blazing display brings this recital to a grand end.

I really enjoyed this recital and though the Bakke is not particularly to my taste that does not detract from the overall success of this well planned and very well executed recital. The sound is vivid and shows Ms Schachtschneider’s dynamic pianism to its best advantage. I was delighted to make the acquaintance of some new music and for the most part the rarities can hold their heads up alongside the well-established repertoire. On a minor logistical note; the recital is marked as being recorded on 14-16 October, 2025. As I am reviewing this in the summer of the 2025 I will take that with a pinch of salt.

Rob Challinor

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Contents
Water
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Au Lac de Wallenstadt from Années de Pélerinage I: Suisse S.160 No.2 (by 1855)
Faustina Hasse Hodges (1823-1895)
Lake Shore Dream (1863)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Jeux d’Eau (1901)
Ruth Bakke (b.1947)
In Memoriam (Alta) (1980)

Earth
Amy Beach (1867-1944)
From Grandmother’s Garden Op.97 (1922)
Martha von Castelberg (1892-1971)
Piano Sonata (1947-48)

Air
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Voiles No.2 from Préludes Book 1 (1909)
Sophie Gräfin Wolf Baudissin (1818-1894)
Träumereien, little character pieces for piano Op.11 (1891-92)
Franz Liszt
Orage from Années de Pélerinage I: Suisse S.160 No.5 (by 1855)

Fire
Claude Debussy
Feux d’Artifice No.12 from Préludes Book 2 (1913)
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Vers la Flamme Op.72 (1914)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Danse Infernale from the Firebird Suite (1919, arr. 1928, Guido Agosti)