Victor Schiøler (piano)
The Great Danish Pianist Volume 7
rec. 1951-1966
Danacord DACOCD987-88 [2 CDs: 151]

What began as a one-off celebratory twofer to mark the centenary of Victor Schiøler’s birth in 1888, has now reached volume 7. It continues to offer surprises and turn up hard-to-find commercial discs, radio and TV performances and, indeed, previously unpublished recordings.

This certainly applies to Chopin’s Preludes, recorded for Danish HMV in 1956, of which only six were previously issued on a 7” release. Now, however, the complete set has been found and tools have been used by Claus Byrith to correct the overdrive which led HMV largely to reject its issue. Schiøler always makes a noble sound, and its mahogany texture is inevitably admirable, though his approach to the Preludes is sober and somewhat reserved (Nos.1 and 6). That said, he possesses a natural gravity and dignity (No.9), and a finely balanced, richly textured if undramatic approach (No.20). Not all the technical problems could be resolved, and you’ll hear some shatter in Nos. 21 and 24. Chopin’s First Concerto comes from a broadcast of a concert given with John Frandsen and the Royal Danish Orchestra in 1964. The orchestral introduction is severely lopped but Schiøler plays with refinement and lyrical elegance.

The second disc leads with Mozart’s Sonata No.11, K.311 ‘Alla Turca’ from a 1955 LP. Booklet note writer Jonas Barlyng writes perceptively but candidly about the music-making in this set and isn’t afraid to make his views known, pro and contra. He’s not much taken by Schiøler’s performance wishing, instead, he’d recorded K.310, which he thinks would have been more temperamentally in tune with the pianist. Nevertheless, it’s well characterised and aptly fanciful. He was, though, especially admired for his Beethoven playing as the ‘Moonlight’ here, taken from a Tono 78 set reminds us. There are a couple of intrusive thumps but these pass rapidly and what remains in the mind is gravity sustained at a sensible tempo – not too slow – and direct, clear vitality that doesn’t relapse into the sheerly mechanistic.

There’s an example of Schiøler the astutely sensitive accompanist in Schubert’s Der Wanderer, with baritone Ib Hansen, taken from a 1966 TV production. Then there is Schumann’s Kinderszenen (HMV, 1956), a performance decidedly not from the Clara Schumann-Fanny Davies lineage. It can be rather metrical and aloof and for all its clarity of passagework and dynamism, it fails to convey the real gravity of the final two movements. This second disc ends with some welcome fire in the shape of three Brahms Rhapsodies. This is the real thing and provides what the Schumann lacks – a compelling intensity conveyed through cast-iron technique.

Questions of interpretation aside, largely subjective, this is another very welcome addition. The notes are engagingly honest, the transfers have been carried out very well, even when the source material may have been somewhat compromised, and there is much rare material to be savoured.

Jonathan Woolf

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Contents
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
24 Preludes, Op.28 (1835-38)
rec. 2 October 1956, previously unissued HMV recording
Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 (1830)
Royal Danish Orchestra/John Frandsen
rec. 9 March 1964, live, Falkonércentret, Copenhagen,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Sonata No.11 in A major, K.331 ‘Alla Turca’ (1783)
rec. 24 November 1955, for HMV
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op.27 No.2 ‘Moonlight’ (1801)
rec. May 1951, for Tono
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Wanderer, D.489 [previously D.493] (1816)
Ib Hansen (baritone)
rec. 1966, TV production
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Kinderszenen, Op.15 (1838)
rec. September 1956, for HMV
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Rhapsodies; in B minor, Op.79 No.1 (1879): in G minor, Op.79 No.2 (1879): in E flat major, Op.119 No.4 (1893)
rec. May 1955, for HMV