Victor Schiøler (piano)
The Great Danish Pianist Volume 8
Rare Wartime Columbia and Cello Sonatas with Erling Blöndal Bengtsson
rec. 1942-61
Danacord DACOCD1012-13 [2 CDs: 154]
Several of Danacord’s long-running artist series are coming to an end and the latest is the eight-CD series devoted to the distinguished pianist Victor Schiøler. This twofer contains him in multiple roles – soloist, chamber player and concerto soloist. Therefore, we also hear the youthful cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra directed by Svend Christian Felumb in a real rarity by Niels Viggo Bentzon.
The first CD starts with two cello sonatas recorded in 1954 for HMV. This has already been reissued in Danacord’s ‘A Gramophone Tribute’ to the cellist, from which I’ll extract my comments. ‘Bengtsson’s Brahms is one of the highlights… With a lean, tautly centred tone he and Victor Schiøler keep the E minor anchored securely without drifting off into expressive indulgence. Inflexions are subtly deployed, and there are no gestural rubati, or overt portamenti. The approach remains nobly conceived, and the partnership sounds rock solid…When the 1954 F major was released on HMV KALP9 it was coupled with Beethoven’s Op.69 sonata. One can hear a few sniffs from the cellist, and Schiøler’s piano sounds a touch brittle here and there, but the performance is extremely authoritative, managing to fuse aristocracy of phrasing with a sure awareness of the expressive peaks of phrases.’
Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata was recorded in 1942 making it the middle of his three recordings of it – 1929 and 1951, where the opening movement stretches to six minutes, were the others. The recording is a touch plummy and the transfer a little over-scrubbed for my tastes with a lack of top. He plays Für Elise deftly and without Arrau’s deep seriousness. An engaging Brahmsian brace follow, recorded in the later 1950s, but it’s Bentzon’s Rhapsody that takes up the remainder of this 76-minute first disc, a 12-minute single-movement piece of real character. This is its first performance, given in June 1961, and presenting a drama-laced, sinuously expressive work that enshrines a slow central section. After which it’s time for the final panel, the piano adopting a brusque percussive terseness accompanied by some brutal orchestral writing.
The second disc contains a variety of smaller things. Schiøler essays two Scarlatti-Tausig Sonatas, followed by a sleepy Grieg Erotik but one that does generate grandeur, as well as two Debussy Preludes, a popular duo if a touch cooly played. Stravinsky’s Danse Russe is somewhat plain but there are two Rachmaninov Preludes from a rarely encountered 1945 Columbia 78 to offer compensation. Jonas Barlyng’s notes tell us of the miserable fate of Schiøler’s live 1946 performance with Malko of the same composer’s Second Piano Concerto – lost after a botched attempt at digital transfer.
There is a single example of his Liszt here but a valuable sequence of Chopin pieces including six Preludes recorded for Tono on 78s in 1943. He was always a refined and persuasive performer of Chopin and remains far too little-known. A few sweetmeats round off the disc, culled from a recording session in 1957 as well as Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from A Midsummer Night´s Dream from 1942.
The curtain comes down with finality on this excellent and revealing series which demonstrates, if such is necessary, that Schiøler was a major artist.
Jonathan Woolf
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Contents
CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 99
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (cello)
rec. 1954 for HMV LP
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op 27/2 ‘Moonlight’
rec.5 November 1942 for Tono 78
Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59)
rec.18 May 1951 for Tono 78
Johannes Brahms
Waltz in A flat major 1:28
rec. 15 May1957 for HMV
Hungarian Dance No. 7 in F major
rec. 22 January (1959?) for HMV
Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000)
Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, Op. 131
Tivoli Symphony Orchestra/Svend Christian Felumb
rec. 5 June 1951, live
CD 2
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) arr: Carl Tausig (1841-1871)
Pastorale in E minor (from Sonata in D minor L.413)
Capriccio in E major (from Sonata in E major L.375)
rec. 8 August 1951 for HMV 78
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Erotik Op. 43, No. 5
Sommerfugl (Butterfly) Op. 43, No. 1
rec. 5 May 1953 for HMV 78
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La fille aux cheveux de lin. Préludes, Book 1, No. 8
La cathédral engloutie, Préludes, Book 1, No. 9
rec. 26 June 1957 for HMV
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Danse Russe. No. 1 from Petrushka
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Etude in D flat major, Op. 8 No. 10
rec. 30 January 1945, Stockholm, for Columbia 78
Pjotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Chant sans paroles, Op. 40 No. 6
rec. 5 May 1953 for HMV 78
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5
Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5
rec. 30 January 1945, Stockholm, for Columbia 78
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Etude de concert No. 3, D flat major
rec. 3 June 1954
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Etude Op. 10, No. 12 ‘Revolutionary’
rec. 1943 for Tono 78
Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2
rec. 20 May 1957 for HMV LP
Etude Op. 25 No. 2
Etude Op 25. No. 6
Waltz Op. 64. No. 2
Waltz Op. 64, No. 1 ‘Minute’
Waltz Op. 69, No. 1
Waltz in E minor, Op. Posth.
Mazurka Op. 33 No. 2
rec. 1943 for Tono 78
Fantasie-Impromptu Op. 66
rec. 11 August 1947 for Tono 78
Prelude Op. 28. No. 7
Prelude Op. 28. No. 3
Prelude Op. 28. No. 22
Prelude Op. 28. No. 1
Prelude Op. 28. No. 23
Prelude Op. 28. No. 16
rec. 1943 for Tono 78
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Scherzo from A Midsummer Night´s Dream
rec. 11 May 1942 for Tono 78
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Moment Musical in F minor, Op. 94 No. 3
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Warum Op. 12, No. 3
Felix Mendelssohn
Spinnerlied Op. 67 No. 4
rec. 29 June 1957 for HMV LP
