Schmidt for Wittegenstein

 

Much has been written about Paul Wittgenstein's lionizing of Franz Schmidt's music, high praise from a historically difficult-to-deal-with pianist.

I do not share Wittgenstein's enthusiasm, particularly for Schmidt's Piano Concerto in E-flat Major.

In general, there is music which works better for me as background listening as opposed to direct focus while listening. I prefer the latter, but when there isn't a major hook to a musical composition, a feeling I often get with the late-Romantics, my concentration wanders.

This piano concerto isn't bad, in fact it is quite beautiful and entirely listenable, whatever that means, but there is little for me to latch on to after hearing it. Its finale finally gets some smiles, but a lengthy cadenza interrupts the joy for most of the final movement, with a short, upbeat tag at its very end. The middle slow movement is probably my favorite, with some wonderful wind moments.

As with Schmidt's Hussar Variations, I am much more at home in his Beethoven Variations. As with that other work, the further Schmidt gets from the original theme statement, the less I can identify what he is varying. This doesn't matter so much, for as in Hussar, his later variations bring the theme back in chipper fashion.

I am assuming the two-armed pianist Markus Becker is playing all of this left-handed, as originally intended for Wittgenstein. The sound of the piano is front-and-center, for better or for worse.

Once again, here we have a fine regional German radio orchestra in the music of Schmidt. Too bad CPO makes them mere background, for I feel I would relish Oue's leading of this Hannover ensemble on a more even plane.

A review from 2024

I am guessing the main attraction here is to hear what late-Romantic, Austrian composer Franz Schmidt does with a piano concerto. The composer, after all, was a piano virtuoso, even if he was most well known as a cellist.


Well, I must say, the nearly 45-minute Piano Concerto in E-flat Major is a flabby, meandering work, with little hook for the listener. If you like late-Romanticism better than me, there might be more in it for you, but I found little in it. Perhaps the recordings from Luisi on Querstand or Kolly on Pan might work better.


I have, however, come to appreciate Franz Schmidt’s way with the variation form. As with his Hussar Variations, the composer works better in smaller, bite-sized pieces for me, where he is forced to compartmentalize his musical ideas.


Still, the Beethoven Variations go on for 30 minutes, and until the last few variations, the main melodic theme from Beethoven gets lost along the way. I was rather taken with a middle variation featuring clarinet duet in the background, and I rather enjoyed the work overall.


I wasn’t enamored with CPO’s very close recording of the left-handed piano, where the orchestra is subsidiary to everything going on. Sure the winds come forward occasionally, but generally speaking, the strings are stuck in the background in a feathery sound.


This is not one I will come back to too often.

 

Listen on YouTube

 

 

Works
Piano Concerto (43.13)
Beethoven Variations (30.09)

Performers
NDR Philharmonic, Hannover
Eiji Oue, conductor

Label: CPO
Year: 2010
Total Timing: 73.27

 

 

 

As with Franz Schmidt's symphonies, I can enjoy this music just fine.

Like those too, however, nothing in his Piano Concerto sticks with me, and my mind easily wanders if I am focusing too closely on the music.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing, yet I like to direct my focus on music, distraction-free.

 

 

 

 

Find more Franz Schmidt recording HERE!