Album

Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms

This recording is, in many ways, a reflection of my own journey—of the moments of clarity and doubt, of resilience and surrender that shaped my life so far. These works by Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms have been my companions for years, sometimes feeling like old friends, other times revealing themselves in ways I never expected. There were days when Schubert’s harmonies seemed to understand me better than I understood myself, when Beethoven demanded more than I thought I could give, and when Brahms reminded me that beauty often lies in contradiction. This album is not just about interpretation, but about a relationship—with music, with time, with myself. I hope that, as you listen, you find your own reflections within these notes.

Tracklist

CD 1

1. Schubert: 3 Klavierstücke, D.946

1          I. Allegro assai 10:23

2          II. Allegretto 13:38

3          III. Allegro 5:16

 

1. Schubert: Sonata in B-flat major, D.960

4          I. Molto moderato 20:40

5          II. Andante sostenuto 10:26

6          III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza — Trio 3:59

7          IV. Allegro ma non troppo 8:38

CD 2

1          W. A. Mozart: Fantasia in D minor, K.397/385g 6:56

2          W. A. Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K.475 14:25

L. v. Beethoven: 6 Bagatelles, Op.126

3          I. Andante con moto, cantabile e con piacevole 3:59

4          II. Allegro 3:11

5          III. Andante, Cantabile ed espressivo 3:08

6          IV. Presto 4:15

7          V. Quasi allegretto 2:57

8          VI.Presto — Andante amabile e con moto 4:12

J. Brahms: 4 Klavierstücke, Op.119

9          I. Intermezzo: Adagio 4:01

10        II. Intermezzo: Andantino un poco agitato 5:00

11        III. Intermezzo: Grazioso e giocoso 2:10

12        IV. Rhapsodie: Allegro risoluto 4:58

THE KORNGOLD PROJECT PART 1

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD
SUITE FOR TWO PIANOS, CELLO AND PIANO LEFT HAND, OP. 23
PIANO TRIO IN D MAJOR, OP. 1
Violin: Daniel Rowland, Priya Mitchell
Cello: Julian Arp
Piano: Luis Magalhães

James A. Altena

Fanfare, March 2016

I’ll dispense here with all preliminaries about these two remarkable works—the op. 1 penned by an amazing Wunderkind of a mere 12 years of age—and go directly to the finish line. These are absolutely phenomenal performances and recordings, in the jaw-dropping, mind-blowing category of stratospheric excellence. Not merely every bar, but every note, every dynamic shading, is redolent of the fin de siècle Viennese Romantic over-ripeness that is the very quintessence of Korngold’s music. The intense, fierce passion of these performances, seething with the promethean heat of a conjugal embrace, is the sort of thing that one really only encounters (as here) in live performance, and is never quite captured in the studio. The recorded sound is in the demonstration class; it’s as if you are seated in the very midst of the instruments and enveloped in the richness of every overtone. And what richness! Violinists Daniel Rowland (the first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet) and Priya Mitchell, cellist Julian Arp, and pianist Luis Magelhães are a veritable dream team for opulence of tone, precision of execution, and totality of interpretive engagement and emotional communication. It’s not as if either of these works has lacked for excellent champions before. For the suite there is the classic account on Sony with Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, and Leon Fleischer; for the trio my first choice heretofore among several fine alternatives would have been the EMI recording with Glenn Dichterow, Alan Stepansky, and Israela Margalit. But this new entry simply sweeps the boards; every time I listen to it again, I am absolutely stunned by its magnificence. And, best of all, it is advertized as The Korngold Project, Part One. If what is promised to follow can match this, we will have a new reference standard for Korngold’s chamber works. Highest possible recommendation, and yet another prime candidate for my already overflowing 2016 Want List.

Elliot Fisch

American Record Guide, January 2016

Magalhaes plays the raucous and extremely difficult opening passages easily, with excellent tone and expressiveness. …the playing is excellent.

If you are not familiar with Korngold’s music besides his movie scores or his 1920 opera Die Tote Stadt, this excellent recording is a good introduction.

Daniel Coombs

Audiophile Audition, January 2016

Both of these works are a bit of a rarity and they do both meander just a bit. However, this is lovely music played very well by the forces on this recording. Korngold is a composer whose music deserves to be explored more thoroughly.

David Gutman

Gramophone Magazine, November 2015

The results are unfailingly musical, more than adequately spacious and even weepy in the heartfelt ‘Lied’. 

Michael Schulman

The WholeNote, September 2015

The Piano Trio…receives a vigorous, upfront performance, recorded live, as was the Suite, with well-deserved applause at its conclusion. 

Dominy Clements

MusicWeb International, September 2015

The live performances on this recording are all the more remarkable in that the musicians are far from being an established group. The unity and synergy apparent from this recording makes it rather special, and with good sound quality and barely any perceptible audience noise this is a release that can be purchased with confidence. 

Jeff Simon

The Buffalo News, August 2015

The Suite for two violins, cello and piano left hand is a wild, flamboyant and extravagant piece of rare instrumentation that deserves as much stubborn re-affirmation as willing musicians want to give it. 

★★★★

Blair Sanderson

Allmusic.com, August 2015

…violinists Daniel Rowland and Priya Mitchell, cellist Julian Arp, and pianist Luis Magalhães play the Suite and the Piano Trio with passion and sensitivity, and give their series an auspicious beginning.

© 2015 Examiner.com

I first encountered TwoPianists Records a little over a year ago after they released a nine-CD box entitled Richard Strauss: Complete Works for Voice and Piano: 1870–1948. I knew nothing about the company other than the fact that the physical CDs were made in Austria. It was only after I visited the Web site that I discovered that the business itself was situated quite some distance from Austria:

TwoPianists Records was founded in 2008 by renowned pianists Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann, and is based in the stunningly beautiful surroundings of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

This past week TwoPianists again came to my attention when I learned that their latest release was entitled The Korngold Project: Part One. It turned out that this project emerged as a result of a gathering of musicians of many different nationalities all coming together to participate in a chamber music festival in South Africa. They discovered that they all shared an interest in the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and used the festival setting to give their first performances of music he composed prior to his move to the United States to escape the Nazis. The Web page for this recording on the TwoPianists Web site continues this story as follows:

Such was the success of their virgin Korngold performances that they vowed to travel the world to complete the Korngold project. And so they embarked on a journey that included rehearsing in Berlin, performing in Oxford and finally concertizing and recording in South Africa. This is not an established group but a meeting of minds linked through the beauty of Erich Korngold’s music.

To be fair, these musicians are not the first to have taken an interest in Korngold’s music. The Beaux Arts Trio recorded his Opus 1 piano trio in D major in 1992; and, in my home town of San Francisco, it has not been difficult to find performances of Korngold’s chamber music, songs, and his opera Die tote Stadt. Furthermore, if one overlooks the film scores he composed after his move to the United States, his catalog is relatively modest: the opus number count only runs to 42.

Part of the problem may be that Korngold never really kept up with the times. As a child prodigy Korngold played a cantata he had composed for Gustav Mahler, who was impressed enough to recommend him for study with Alexander von Zemlinsky, who also taught Alma Schindler before she married Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg (who would marry Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde). I have previously described the Opus 1 trio as having been “written at the time that the composer was of bar mitzvah age.” Stylistically, however, Korngold was best known for taking the lush outpourings of the twilight of Romanticism and pumping them up with a fresh round of steroids, which may explain why his music critic father Julius once chastised him with the warning “Don’t bathe!” The younger Korngold’s approach certainly served him well with the film industry; but, when he returned to Europe after the end of the Second World War, he realized how out of touch he had become with modernist advances.

Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy in Korngold’s music as long as one is willing to take an it-is-what-it-is approach. The contributors to this new TwoPianists release, pianist Magalhães, violinists Daniel Rowland and Priya Mitchell, and cellist Julian Arp, do just that. Their performance of the Opus 1 trio is a reflection of their youthful enthusiasm, which is certainly consistent with the exuberance of the composer’s age at that time. Rowland is occasionally a bit shaky with his intonation, particularly on some of the longer sustained notes; but all three players are definitely true to the spirit of the music.

The other selection on this recording is the Opus 23 suite for two violins, cello, and piano left hand. This was composed for Paul Wittgenstein, a celebrated pianist who lost his right arm during World War One. Wittgenstein came from a well-to-do family; and he is now known for having commissioned a generous number of compositions that could be played by the left hand alone. Korngold was actually the first composer he approached, and that first commission resulted in his Opus 17 piano concerto in C-sharp major. Wittgenstein was not phased by the key signature and presented Korngold with a second commission, whose result was the Opus 23 suite.

Ironically, while this suite played a major role in the journey of discovery of its performers on this recording, I was in a position to enjoy it as the piece of Korngold chamber music I knew best. I had encountered it not only through a recording, discussed on this site in February of 2013, but also (and far more exciting) through a student chamber music recital in November of 2010 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. (For the record my first encounter with Korngold’s chamber music came about half a year earlier through his third string quartet, which he composed after his move to the United States.)

It is easy to imagine that Wittgenstein was as pleased with Opus 23 as he had been with the Opus 17 concerto. The opportunities for virtuoso display are legion, and Korngold shows a clear understanding of just how much the left had can do on its own. It would also be fair to say that there is far more rhetorical breadth in this suite than there had been in the youthful Opus 1 trio. Nevertheless, at the hands of the performers on this recording, both pieces stand firmly on their own respective merits; and, from a personal point of view, I have to say that I found myself taking delight in how another group of performers was enjoying the same discovery process that I had encountered from those conservatory students in San Francisco.

The question now, however, is one of where this project will go next! 

© 2015 Infodad.com

The music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) is undergoing something of a reconsideration these days, and TwoPianists Records is poised to play a significant role in it through a series it is calling The Korngold Project. The first volume includes Korngold’s only Piano Trio, which is his first published work and was written when he was just 13—showing him as a Mendelssohn-like prodigy. The trio was written when Korngold was studying with Alexander Zemlinsky, and it contains both late-Romantic intensity and high levels of lyricism. It also has some clever compositional elements, to which the performers are careful to pay close attention: notably, it has an almost circular structure, with the work’s opening theme repeated and reworked at the conclusion of the finale. Although it is easy to hear echoes of Brahms and Richard Strauss in the music, there is nothing overtly imitative in it, and its harmonic language is right in line with what would be expected for its time period (1909–10), showing that Korngold understood very early in life the direction in which music was going—even if he often chose in later works not to go that way. The Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left Hand is later Korngold (1930) and significantly more mature in the sense of being written in a more-definitive, more-personal style. But it too draws largely on late-Romantic notions of harmony and emotional communication, and its five movements are evocative of exactly what their titles suggest: Präludium und Fuge, Walzer, Groteske, Lied and Rondo-Finale (Variationen). It was commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I and was very pleased with the left-hand concerto that Korngold had previously written for him. Less thoroughly integrated than the early Trio, as befits a work labeled a suite, this piece gives the performers plenty of chances to showcase their individual parts (including a very demanding opening piano cadenza) as well as their ensemble work—Korngold was skilled at creating equal contributions to chamber music for all the participants. This entry in the budding Korngold revival bodes very well indeed for future releases in the same series.

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN AND PIANO SONATAS

Sonata in F Major (1838)
Sonata in F minor, Op. 4
Sonata in D minor (1825, unfnished)
Sonata in F Major (1820)
Madeline Adkins (violin)
Luis Magalhães (piano)

Jerry Dubins

Fanfare, January 2017

The playing by these two musicians is astonishingly good. It’s so good, in fact, that the highest tribute I can pay it is to say that if Mendelssohn were alive today to hear these artists play his completed sonatas, he would rush to dust off his uncompleted manuscripts and finish them, just to hear Adkins and Magalhães play them. Even if the performances were not as phenomenally good as they are, and the TwoPianists recording was not as immaculately clean, transparent, and beautifully balanced as it is, this release would still deserve strong commendation for including more of Mendelssohn’s violin and piano works on a single disc than any others I know. But the performances and the recording are magnificent, so, urgently recommended. © 2017 Fanfare

Tim Smith

The Baltimore Sun, August 2016

Partnered with equal ease and nuance by pianist Luis Magalhães, Adkins captures the lyrical sweep of Mendelssohn’s F major Sonata from 1838. The youthful F major Sonata from 1820 inspires playing of great clarity and color, especially in the whirlwind finale. Adkins finds the drama in the F minor Sonata, Op. 4, as well as the poetic possibilities in the single, promising fragment from an unfinished D minor Sonata. © 2016 The Baltimore Sun

DISTANCE

Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963) – Oboe Sonata (1938)
Peteris VASKS (b. 1946) – Pieskarieni for solo oboe (1983)
Elliott CARTER (1908-2012) – Trilogy for oboe and harp (1992)
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) – Sonata for Flute and Harp, BWV 1031 (1730-1734)
Ernst KRENEK (1900-1991) – Vier Stücke für Oboe und Klavier (1966) Sonatina for solo oboe (1956)
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) – from Fünf Stücke im Volkston Op. 102 no. 2 & 4 (1849)

Oboe: James Austin Smith
Piano: Luis Magalhães
Harp: Bridget Kibbey

REVIEWS

American Record Guide

Christopher Foss

James Austin Smith shows great versatility and creative programming.

Luis Magalhaes offers a sensitive and invigorating counterpoint to Smith’s playing, and the duo truly shines in the Krenek Four Pieces.

AMERICAN INTERSECTIONS

Samuel Barber – Souvenirs Op. 28 (arr. for two pianos by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale)
William Bolcom – Recuerdos
Aaron Copland – El Salón México (arr. for two pianos by Leonard Bernstein)
Frederic Rzewski – Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (arr. for two pianos by the composer)
John Adams – Hallelujah Junction
Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann (pianos)

REVIEWS

James Harrington

American Record Guide, Mar 2016

The composers here all hail from the United States, and this is a great representation of American music, in many styles, from the 20th Century. We are consistently reminded of our nation’s roots and growth being attributable to the melting pot nature of the people. Our music is here described as an intersection of a variety of styles and influences. Schumann and Magalhaes are one of the premiere piano duo teams today, not only because of their fantastic piano skills, but for their adventuresome and varied repertoire. They have consistently supplied releases that touch on both familiar and relatively unknown music, often presented in rare arrangements. The label TwoPianists is theirs and has expanded over the past several years into a very reliable source of great artists and repertoire, with state of the art sound and consistently high quality booklet essays.

This music takes us to Mexico and South America, a cotton mill in the old south, a ballet of short dance scenes, and a minimalist exploration of the word “Hallelujah” and some of its musical history. In the excellent, substantial booklet essay we are told how all the European musical traditions came to the United States. Here they intersected with Latin and South American styles, as well as the blues tradition that began with the African slave population.

Of course with all of this thought and planning, we have to be presented with exceptional performances—and we are. Each work has come my way at least once before, but Schumann and Magalhaes go immediately to the top of my list as best available.

Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs was given a memorable piano 4-hands performance by John Browning and Leonard Slatkin some years back in New York. The arrangement here is for two pianos by Gold and Fitzdale, and the six dance movements are wonderful neoromantic music. Originally for piano duet, it was soon orchestrated by the composer for use as a ballet. Barber also made a solo piano version.

William Bolcom, despite a wide variety of compositions in many styles, is perhaps best known for his ragtime piano playing. While exploring Latin dance styles for his Recuerdos, he was able to relate ragtime to the widespread piano dance music trend in the second of decade of the 20th Century. In the 1930s Copland visited a dance hall in Mexico called El Salon Mexico, which supplied him with the inspiration and title of his next orchestral work. The arrangement played here is by no less than Leonard Bernstein.

Last year I reviewed a disc called “Powerhouse Pianists” (AMR 1039, July/Aug 2015) that introduced me to the Rzewski and Adams pieces also found on the current release. They are big, 10-to-15-minute works that are repetitious and, in a number of lengthy sections, quite cacophonous. The Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues began as an old blues tune sung by African-American workers that described never-ending factory work. Rzewski originally wrote a piano solo work, the final piece in a set of Four North American Ballades. The composer made the two-piano version, and from its soft beginning to the deafening climax it evokes the noise of a cotton mill. It reminded me of walking up to a building with all of the machinery running inside at full blast. When you finally open the door, it is overwhelming. Once the machines were turned off, the sounds conjured up a scene switching to an after-work bar where the mill workers listened to a old pianist quite adept at playing the blues. This is certainly not for everyone and is guaranteed not to work as background music. It will give your speakers a good workout.

John Adams is a minimalist composer. This implies that the smallest motive or rhythmic pattern is used as the basis of a work where it is repeated at length and varied. Hallelujah Junction got its title from the name of a truck stop on the Nevada-California border. Handel’s most famous use of the word hallelujah gives its four syllables a distinctive rhythmic motive: long, short, short, long. That plays a big role in this piece, but its most unique feature is the two pianos moving in and out of synchronicity with each other. It is soft and loud; fast, slow, and even faster, building to an exciting conclusion. It does seem very well suited to the dynamism of this exception duo.

Alex Baran

The Wholenote, 23 Feb 2016

The dynamism of dual piano performance asserts itself powerfully in American Intersections. Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhäes have performed together since 1999. Their latest recording seeks to reflect the melting pot of influences that defines American music, Blues, Latin, Ragtime, etc.

Souvenirs Op.28 is Samuel Barber’s collection of dances for piano four hands. Schumann and Magalhäes, however, play an arrangement for two pianos and take advantage of the opportunity for the richer performance that this offers. They adhere faithfully to Barber’s strong romantic leaning without neglecting his frequent modernist flirtations.

William Bolcom’s Recuerdos is a three-part set of homages to composers like Nazareth and Gottschalk. The Paseo opens and closes with a sublime Latin-influenced rag that is utterly captivating. But the show-stealer is the final homage to Delgado Palacios, in which the duo brings explosive energy to Bolcom’s Valse Venezolano.

When Leonard Bernstein arranged Copland’s El Salón México for two pianos in 1941, it soon eclipsed the version for single keyboard. This recording of the piece captures every orchestral nuance and turn of phrase. It’s a terrific performance.

Frederic Rzewski echoes the powerful pulse of American industry in Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. The pounding episode that opens the piece surrenders to a mildly dissonant blues segment beautifully played, which then blends back into a combined machine-pulsed blues to close the piece.

Hallelujah Junction by John Adams is a complex and difficult piece. Schumann and Magalhäes perform this superbly. There’s a devilishly complex rhythm just before the slower middle section which they handle flawlessly. The work’s relentless drive to its finish seems no challenge at all to this very gifted pair.

Brian Reinhart

MusicWeb International, November 2015

This program of music for two pianos smartly pieces together a number of great, overlooked American pieces.

Donald Rosenberg

Gramophone Magazine

The South African-based duo pianists Nina Schumann & Luis Magalhães looked across the ocean to find inspiration for their captivating new disc, ‘American Intersections’. The repertoire encompasses a range of styles, which these musicians seize by the throat and heart to give richly detailed, dynamic performances. (…) The reading is breathtakingly fast, with fierce definition of rhythms and dynamics, as if the music hall for which the piece is names had caught fire. (…) They’re also seamless partners in the bright minimalism of John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, whose slightly off-kilter lines swirl, leap, prance and race as inspired by – what else? – the ‘Hallelujah’ in Handel’s chorus.

© 2015 Infodad.com

The performances here are fine throughout, with the CD likely to appeal primarily to fans of duo-piano performance in general, to Schumann and Magalhães in particular, and to those already familiar with the 20th-century American works heard here.

BACH GOLDBERG VARIATIONS FOR TWO PIANOS

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) – Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, (arranged for two pianos by Rheinberger/Reger)
Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann (pianos)

REVIEWS

James Harrington

© 2014 American Record Guide

The South African-based husband-andwife duo of Magalhaes and Schumann has come my way twice before: an exceptional set of Rachmaninoff (TwoPianists 103903, Nov/Dec 2010) and another memorable release that included an arrangement for two pianos of the Brahms Paganini Variations (TwoPianists 103902, Jan/Feb 2011).

I was able to find scores for both the original Rheinberger version from 1883 and Reger’s revision from 1915. It should be noted that Reger also prepared his version for organ at the same time, probably using Rheinberger’s two-piano version as a starting point. Without taking a couple of days to do a measure by measure analysis, it appears that Reger’s editorial additions are primarily in the area of dynamics and phrasing, with occasional fingering suggestions. I heard no alterations in the notes or division of material between the two pianos in the first few variations that I did examine in detail. Since Bach was one of the first master transcribers, I have never had objections to well done transcriptions of his music. This one has given me many hours of enjoyable listening.

Magalhaes and Schumann are an exceptional team. Their musicality is matched by their technical and interpretive abilities. The spontaneity found all through this recording underscores the communication between performers. I found a video on line of the two rehearsing the Goldbergs, where they clearly enjoyed working through a variation. Since the arrangement gives each performer the opportunity to play most passages, they continually play off of one another, either imitating or contrasting similar musical material. Rheinberger adds additional voices and doublings, makes more of accompaniment figures, and even updates the harmonies. Magalhaes and Schumann never lose track of the original Bach, but allow all the romantic alterations to both come to the fore and sit in the background as the music dictates. Theirs is an enlightening performance that will remain on my listening stack for years to come. 

Jed Distler

ClassicsToday.com

In 1883 Joseph Rheinberger arranged Bach’s Goldberg Variations for two pianos, fleshing out the original textures with doubled melodic lines, added accompanying chords, and even adding his own contrapuntal contributions to the mix. Thirty years later Max Reger tweaked Rheinberger’s scoring in regard to dynamics and phrasings. Somehow the busy keyboard traffic never seems thick or heavy, but that may be due to the Schumann/Magalães piano duo’s split-second ensemble precision, flexible agility, and resourceful ways of voicing the material for maximum variety and rhythmic thrust.

Sparks particularly fly in variations originally deployed for two manuals, while by contrast, slow tempos that most single pianists would be hard pressed to sustain well (the minor-key No. 15, the lyrical No. 13) benefit from the kind of sonorous reinforcement available on two pianos. (…) Schumann/Magalhães duo’s high standards and captivating artistry, not to mention the warmly resonant engineering. After all, to quote my colleague Tim Page, “inauthenticity can be fun!”

Artslink.co.za

Andra le Roux-Kemp

I have a very peculiar relationship with the Rheinberger/Reger transcription of the Bach Goldberg Variations.

I was first introduced to this wondrous work in 2011, when Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães performed it at the Klein Karoo Klassique Festival. I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I could not stop crying. In fact, I was so moved that I decided to quit my job. The exact same thing happened in 2012, at a concert in the Endler Hall (Stellenbosch). With tears flowing (this time it was tears of joy) Bach-Rheinberger-Reger were again the impetus behind the metamorphosis of my life.

You can therefore understand my hesitance to buy the CD, which was released in September 2013 (TwoPianist Records). Because contrary to what legend may suggests, this version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is definitely not going to cure my insomnia, it rather seems to play on various other parts of my receptive personality.

Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988, first published in 1741) is generally considered to be a “masterpiece of contrapuntal invention” and consists of a theme and thirty variations. The theme (an aria) is a simple, yet expressive and heavily ornamented melody and the variations, according to Ralph Kirkpatrick, a set ternary pattern of canons, genre pieces and lively arabesques. The variations are furthermore not based on the melody of the opening theme, but rather use its bass line, thereby creating “variations on the inner harmonic flow of the aria, rather than the opening aria or theme itself”.

Josef Rheinberger transcribed Bach’s monumental variation work, originally written for the harpsichord with two manuals, in 1883. The main objectives for his two piano arrangement were to create sounds of orchestral dimensions and to enrich the work with elements of Romanticism while staying true to Bach’s original structure and score. Almost two decades later, Max Reger further revised the Rheinberger arrangement by adding a canvas of dynamic markings, creating sonorities and “filling in harmonic layers which he felt was necessary for the music to be appreciated by modern ears”. Yet, the end result remains reasonably close to Bach’s original and the recording by Schumann and Magalhães serves as an excellent reference for those who – whether familiar or unfamiliar with Bach’s original – want to explore and experience the outer limits of this enduring work.

Grant Chu Covell described this musical adventure as follows: “It’s much like coming across someone else’s copy of a book you know so well, and wondering why certain passages, punctuation and spaces were marked with a fluorescent highlighter”. This recording by Schumann and Magalhães does exactly that; it takes you on an exciting journey through chartered and unchartered territory, revisiting favourite destinations and unlocking treasures that may previously have gone unnoticed.

For example, with their inspired interpretation and flawless precision the duo perfectly captures and communicates the radical departures in mood and character between some of the variations. In fact, some of the most exciting seconds on this CD are the charged silences between some of the variations, especially between the opening aria and variation 1 and between variation 13 and 14 – the latter played with an exuberant chain of mordents that will send shivers of delight down your spine.

With variation 4 – a miniature tour de force in syncopation – and variation 16, the imitation of the plucked string action of the harpsichord reminds us that we are still listening to Bach. And so does the emphasis on the passus duriusculus (a decending bass line symbolysing pain and suffering) at the beginning of variation 21, perfectly captured in Rheinberger and Reger’s arrangements. However, the seducing ebb and flow of the pianos in variation 6 and its full range of orchestral colours in variation 12 challenge these baroque antics.

The virtuosic showpieces of this transcription of the Goldberg Variations – variations 5, 11, 17, 20, 26 and 28 – are played in perfect unison as if with one mind (and if it was possible, also one hand). It is truly so exhilarating to listen to that I just want to keep pressing the repeat button and listen to these showpieces over and over again, even at the risk of the experience becoming stale (but I can assure you that it won’t). Schumann and Magalhães also does not disappoint in revealing Bach’s (often overlooked) sense of humour in variation 23, which has been described as a “cheeky concoction of scales and antiphonal effects”.

Other favourites include variation 11, a two-part toccata with its cascading scales and variation 13, a sarabande played so gently and with such fragility that you are almost too scared to breath. Although some might argue that Schumann and Magalheas’s tempo on this latter variation is much slower than usual, the effect of the myriad of sound colours which they create are certainly worth the experiment.

The work ends Aria (da capo), a note-for-note repetition of the main theme. And with this recording, it is not only the Aria that has been “transfigured by the life knowledge of having traversed thirty miraculous variations”.

Thys Odendaal 

Beeld, 12 Sep 2013 

Klavierduo betower in ‘variasies’

Ryksgraaf Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk het aan slaaploosheid gely en in nagte wanneer hy nie ’n oog kon toemaak nie, moes die klawesimbelspeler in sy hofhouding, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756), vir hom “sagte, strelende en verkwiklike” musiek speel.

Só skryf Johann Sebastian Bach se eerste biograaf, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, in 1802. Die 14-jarige Goldberg was ’n student van Bach tussen 1733 en 1746.

Bach het in opdrag van Keyserlingk ’n stel variasies – dié “nagmusiek”, of sal ’n mens sê “insomnia-musiek”? – gekomponeer om die wakkerbly draagliker te maak.

In die biografie het Forkel ook beslis dat “die Goldberg-variasies as model behoort voorgehou te word waarop alle variasie-stelle in die toekoms gebou behoort te word, en waaraan hulle gemeet sal word”.

Die probleem met die Goldberg-variasies is, soos so baie van Bach se ongeëwenaarde en wegwyser-skeppings, nie altyd histories bepaalbaar is nie.

Tientalle opnames van die Goldberg-siklus is op CD vasgelê, waaronder die meer onlangse weergawe van Murray Perahia op Decca as een van die beste vertolkings wat beskikbaar is.

Benewens die variasies op een klawesimbel of klavier, het twee befaamde komponiste – Joseph Rheinberger en Max Reger, albei veral bekend vir hul orrelkomposisies – die Goldberg-variasies aangepas vir twee klaviere, met uitstekende resultate.

Vroeg verlede jaar het die egpaar Nina Schumann en Luis Magalhães voor twee klaviere die Goldberg-variasies op die TwoPianists-etiket opgeneem in die Endler-saal van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Dit is ’n produk van uitmuntende gehalte – artistiek stylvol in die onmiskenbare klassieke idioom, tegnies onberispelik versorg deur Gerhard Roux wat ’n uitmuntende balans tussen die twee klaviere bewerkstellig. Boonop is daar insiggewende programnotas deur Barry Ross.

Dat Schumann en Magalhães ’n instinktiewe aanvoeling en begrip in die vertolkingskuns openbaar, is allermins verrassend. Dit blyk uit hul konserte en vorige opnames.

Of ’n mens ’n Bach-aanhanger is al dan nie, laat jouself toe om na enkele snitte te luister. Die klavierspel is betowerend en die ewewig tussen die instrumente bewonderenswaardig. Die aanslag is gedrae waar nodig en dan weer opruiend vlugvoetig in byvoorbeeld ’n fugale passasie.

Neem die driftige aanslag van die variasie op snit 10, stel dit teenoor die reflektiewe snit 11 en spring na die sprankelende snit 21, en ’n opsommende klankskets is duidelik.

Janáček Schumann Schubert

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) – Violin Sonata
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) – Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 121
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) – Fantasie in C major, Op. 159, D. 934
Frank Stadler (violin)
Luis Magalhães (piano)

REVIEWS

The Strad, January 2012

David Denton

The powerful opening chords set the scene for Frank Stadler’s impressively intense performance of Schumann’s Second Sonata.

Perfectly capturing the wide mood swings that picture the ardent and dreamily melancholic elements of Schumann’s character, he brings a flexibility of rhythm and tempo to stamp his own view on the score. In Luis Magalhães he has a partner who keeps the urgency in tempos needed to generate the work’s vigour. Schubert’s Fantasy often sits uneasily under the violinist’s fingers, though Stadler’s unfailingly accurate intonation makes light of the problems that such awkward writing creates. The two players take an equal share in the happiness of the score, with Magalhães’s nimble fingers dancing through the third movement Andantino before an irresistibly lively final Presto.

The recorded balance is good and the sound has a natural ambience.

★★★/★★★★ Ritmo Magazine, December 2011 

Jordi Caturla González

Tres obras bien distintas se dan cita en este recital para piano y violín que nos ofrece el sello TwoPianists. La Sonata para violín de Janácek fue escrita durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y con el recuerdo sangriento de la misma en mente. Magalhães al piano y Stadler al violín trasladan magníficamente a sonidos esta tenebrosa atmósfera que recorre la obra. Con una gran solvencia técnicaque les permite adecuarse a cada diseño, la música aparece a través de una gran variedad de matices sonoros, vibrantes, oscuros, emocionalmente desgarradores. Por otro lado, la Sonata para violín núm. 2 que Schumann escribiera ya con serios problemas mentales pone de manifiesto la gran compenetración de ambos músicos y el excelente hacer del portugués al teclado, en una interpretación fervientemente apasionada que nunca llega a excederse. En último lugar, la virtuosa Fantasía D934 de Schubert tiene un magnífico comienzo que se desinfla por la búsqueda consciente de una belleza sonora discutible en algunos puntos como el Allegretto. Pese a ello, el disco se escucha casi todo con notable interés, a lo que hay que añadir una espectacular toma sonora. Muy buen trabajo, por tanto, del sello sudafricano.

American Record Guide, November 2011

Joseph Magil

This is an excellent recital, and Frank Stadler and Luis Magalhaes are excellent musicians.

The first movement of the Janacek Violin Sonata is not as tortured as others have made it, but the duo compensates with a broader lyricism and does a fine job exploring the movement’s more delicate moods. They are punchier in II but still make the quieter sections sing. III has the alternately assertive and yearning quality that I’m sure Janacek intended. Schumann’s Violin Sonata 2 is majestic here. Their tempos don’t drag, and they dig in to this score with obvious relish. The hymnlike III builds beautifully. IV is exciting and builds to a glorious conclusion. Magalhaes produces a wonderfully full sound here without covering Stadler.

To top things off, this is the most satisfying account I have heard of Schubert’s Fantasy, his masterpiece for violin and piano. Most violinists cannot play the sustained opening without their bows trembling, but Stadler maintains a steady tone with controlled dynamics nearly all the time. This is a fiendishly difficult work as far as getting the pacing right and building sustained climaxes and transitions. I always feel nervous when I listen to it: will they make it without stumbling somewhere? Stadler and Magalhaes make it! Very good sound.

Fanfare – Oct 2011

Raymond Tuttle 

Given the prominence of the label’s name on this release’s spine, I thought that I was about to hear arrangements for piano four-hands of these three violin sonatas. Not so. TwoPianists was created by pianist Luis Magalhães as a vehicle for him and his wife, Nina Schumann, also a pianist. (TwoPianists also is the name under which they perform together.) This CD must be “boys’ night out,” then, for Luis and violinist Frank Stadler. The booklet does not indicate if the two of them perform together frequently; the performances themselves suggest that they do. 

This is a meaty program. The sonatas are performed in the order indicated above—that is to say, in reverse chronological order. Even though this is counterintuitive, it is not jarring. (One might say that Janáček’s thorough lubrication of one’s ears allows Schumann and the glorious Schubert to slide right in.) These are important works which allow the musicians to display not only their techniques but also their intelligence. Stadler and Magalhães pass all the tests. As I wrote in my review of Gabriel Chodos’s Schubert piano sonata disc (also in this issue), it is gratifying to discover how many lesser-known classical musicians are recording performances that are just as viable as those recorded by the big boys. For example, Gidon Kremer has recorded all three of these works, and recently I have been enjoying some of David Oistrakh’s recordings of the Schubert and the Janáček. Many collectors looking for their first recordings of any of these works would likely turn to a familiar name, but if they did, they would be missing out on some very impressive music-making by the present performers. 

Although Stadler and Magalhães play with character, their character does not overwhelm the music itself, and they find a different sound and a different style for each of the three sonatas. In the Janáček, in particular, I admire the wealth of colors that Stadler creates here—all in service of the music. Just try the beginning of the Adagio fourth movement, and I expect you’ll marvel at the human quality of Stadler’s playing. The musicians bring a more innocent quality to the Schubert, without negating the music’s incipient strangeness, e.g., in the composer’s use of tremolo. Schubert is thus revealed as, like William Blake, both knowing and innocent. For me, the least successful performance here (and it is hardly a failure) is of the Schumann. Stadler and Magalhães seem less willing to succumb to the seductions of the romantic spirit, and there is, if not a stiffness, then at least an orderliness to this performance that I find uncharacteristic of Schumann. As a result, the final movement comes off as a little repetitive and even uninspired in terms of its melodic materials, because the two musicians perform it with such literalness and control. 

I don’t want to make too much of that, though, because this is a very enjoyable disc. Reviewing is most worthwhile when one discovers a work, a composer, or a performer. Barry Ross’s thorough booklet notes add to the enjoyment, and the engineering is honest and realistic. The venue was Endler Hall at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. I’m not sure how TwoPianists and the present performers ended up there, but I am glad they did! 

AllMusic.com – August 2011

Mike D. Brownell

Violinist Frank Stadler and pianist Luis Magalhaes join forces on this Two Pianists Records disc for an enticingly varied program of works by three composers of a highly critical nature. The program opens with Janacek’s Violin Sonata, actually his third and final contribution to the genre but the only one that the composer did not destroy out of fears the first two were not worthy of performance. Schumann’s D minor Violin Sonata was composed immediately after the First Sonata as Schumann felt his first attempt was insufficient. Finally, Schubert’s C Major Fantasie, a piece which uncharacteristically focuses greatly on virtuosic pyrotechnics, was given a frigid reception at its premiere and remained unpublished until after the composer’s death. Stadler and Magalhaes bring vibrant, exciting playing to the stage for all three works. What’s most impressive is the different characters, colors, and sensibilities that the duo presents for each different work on their program. Here is a duo that is not merely performing three varied compositions, but rather understands the different nature, historical and emotional backgrounds of all three pieces and presents them to their listeners in an enjoyable, captivating way. Both artists possess polished, refined technique that allows their effortless playing to focus on musical decisions, infusing their performances with playfulness, brooding, tempestuousness, and bravura as the need arises.

Die Burger – Nov 2011 

Dit is nogal ’n interessante luisterervaring om van Janácek na Schumann en Schubert te luister. Die Tsjeggiese komponis se musikale taal is (te verwagte) soveel anders as die twee Duitsers s’n. Maar op ’n manier reken ’n mens dat hulle mekaar tog goed sou kon verstaan het, al is hul musikale tale so verskillend. Janácek (1854-1928) se taal van die twintigste eeu voel amper bevrydend, asof dit sonder ­enige beperkings is, maar met sterk volks­elemente. Die twee Duitsers se taal sleur meer en is by tye sentimenteel, soos musiek uit die Romantiek maar is – maar altyd met ’n verrassing. Dit is dié drie komponiste wat jy te hore kry op die album van Luis Magalhães, die Portugese pianis wat op Stellenbosch woon, en die Duitse violis Frank Stadler.

Dis ’n CD met drie vioolsonates, opgeneem deur TwoPianists, Magalhães en sy vrou, Nina Schumann, se platemaatskappy. Wat dié luisteraar sommer uit die staanspoor opgeval het – behalwe dat die program so ’n interessante luistersessie bied – is dat die gehalte van die opname werklik uitstekend is. Stadler is ’n gereelde besoeker aan die jaarlikse Stellenbosse Internasionale Kamermusiekfees en op die verhoog is hy musikaal in klank en voordrag. Op die album, met net gehoor as sintuig, is die ervaring eweseer so.Hy en Magalhães beweeg saam op die golwe van die musiek en is op gelyke vlak, met die klavier en viool in perfekte balans. Janácek het sy vioolsonate laat in sy lewe gekomponeer, nadat hy ook twee ander vioolsonates geskryf het wat nooit gepubliseer is nie, word in die programnotas gemeld. Die een wat oorleef het en wat Stadler en Magalhães hier speel, is ’n emosionele werk met ’n byna skisofreniese aard; dan melancholies, dan skertsend. By tye bespeur jy tog ’n Romantiese aard wat ’n mens in die Schumann- en Schubert-werke verwag. Schumann se Vioolsonate in D mineur, op.121, begin kragtig en stu so voort tot die einde. Dis ’n werk wat stewig staan in ’n ryk, vol klank. Dieselfde geld Schubert se Fantasie in C majeur, op.159, D.934. Daardie byna oordrewe verklanking van emosies neem jou op ’n musikale tog. Om na Schubert te luister, is dikwels soos om na ’n boeiende sprokie te luister. Stadler en Magalhães se spel is niks minder as uitstekend nie. Albei musici bewind hulle saam binne die musiek en is totaal in voeling met mekaar. Hul program sorg nie net vir ’n interessante luisterbelewenis nie, maar is ook ’n toonbeeld van ware musikaliteit.

BEETHOVEN CELLO AND PIANO SONATAS

CD 1
Sonata in C major Op. 102 no.1
Sonata in F major Op. 5 no. 1
Sonata in A major Op. 69
CD2
Sonata in F major Op. 17
Sonata in G minor Op. 5 no. 2
Sonata in D major Op. 102 no. 2
Peter Martens (cell0)
Luis Magalhães (piano)

REVIEWS

Zwei, die sich viel zu sagen haben. Ludwig van Beethovens Sonaten für Violoncello und Klavier gehören nicht nur zu den interessantesten Beiträgen zu dieser Gattung. Sie begründen sie auch gewissermaßen, wobei die Betonung auf Sonaten für Violoncello und Klavier liegt, fungieren doch beide Instrumente als gleichwertige Partner. Darüber hinaus erlauben sie einen Einblick in die Kompositionswerkstatt, da sie das gesamte Schaffen von Beethoven umfassen: angefangen von der frühen, noch ‚konventionellen‘ Sonate in F-Dur op. 5,1 bis hin zur Sonate in D-Dur op. 102,2 mit der raffinierten Doppelfuge. Alle fünf Werke und die Violoncello-Fassung der Hornsonate op. 17, die nach neueren Forschungen durchaus als authentisch gelten kann, liegen nun in einer neuen Einspielung von Peter Martens, Violoncello, und Luis Magalhaes, Klavier, vor.

Wenn Goethes bekanntes Bonmot zutrifft, dass ein Streichquartett ein vernünftiges Gespräch unter vier Musikern sei: Was kommt wohl heraus, wenn sich Violoncello und Klavier unterhalten? Peter Martens und Luis Magalhaes geben die Antwort mit erstaunlichen Interpretationen: ein intimer geistreicher Dialog. Blitzwach verfolgt man gespannt den eindringlichen Gedankenaustausch. Da leuchten subtile Motivverknüpfungen zwischen den Sätzen auf. Die Sonate für Klavier und Violoncello in A-Dur op. 69, lässt auch erkennen, dass Beethoven ein profunder Kenner der Musik Bachs war, ihr einiges abgeschaut und für seine Werke dienstbar gemacht hat. Das wird oft interpretatorisch unterschlagen, dabei sind die Sachverhalte offensichtlich.

Die Interpretation der berühmten A-Dur-Sonate ist hörbar bewegt vom Wissen um solche Unterströmungen. Virtuose Impulse, etwa im Scherzo, dienen als Interpunktion vor dem Hintergrund einer traumwandlerischen Klanggewichtung, gepaart mit einer fragilen Transparenz und Hintergründigkeit. Da gibt es nichts Geziertes, dafür aber ein dramaturgisches Ereignis mit lebhaften Dialogen zwischen den Instrumenten.

Das zeigt sich auch in der Sonate für Klavier und Violoncello in D-Dur op. 102,2 deren brausender Dur-Ausklang des vierten Satzes nicht als überladenes Schlussritual, sondern als affirmatives zurückschauendes ‚Nun doch‘ auf einen wunderschön gestaltetes ‘Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto’ verstanden werden konnte. Mit souveräner Besonnenheit liefern die Musiker, eine inspirierte Sichtweise, die jedoch gleichzeitig gepaart ist mit einer ausgesprochenen Vitalität, bei der aber die sensibilisierte, höchst verfeinerte Atmosphäre dieser Musik nicht verloren geht.

Klassik.com Michael Pitz-Grewenig, 14.01.2012

Winner of the South African Music Award 2011 for Best Classical Album. 

Beethoven’s metronome marks have always been a matter of dispute, especially the fast ones, leading to the suggestion that his metronome—a brand-new invention—was inaccurate. In 1846, Beethoven’s student and friend, the pianist Carl Czerny, published a book on the “Correct Performance of Beethoven’s Keyboard Works.” He added his own metronome marks, which, based on his familiarity with the master’s style, offer a unique window into Beethoven’s intentions.

On this recording of Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas (including the Horn Sonata, Op. 17), South African cellist Peter Martens and Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhaes give their interpretations a special kind of authenticity by not only meticulously observing the score’s phrasing and dynamics, but also by following Czerny’s metronome marks.

Still, despite its interesting underlying concept, what makes the recording most remarkable is the excellence of the performances: technically flawless, perfect in ensemble, and strikingly expressive, especially in the slow movements. The cellist’s tone is pure and beautiful, the changes of mood and character are natural and organic. The balance between rhythmic steadiness and flexibility is admirable. The tempi do not differ as much from those used by most players as one would expect, though the fast movements are perhaps more distinctly brisk. This recording is a splendid addition to the discography of these great works, marred only by excessive dynamic contrasts and harsh, percussive sforzati in the piano, which seem to be equally explosive at all dynamic levels.

Strings Magazine, May 2011

Beethoven, both as a man and a composer has held a fascination for me for many years. His music moves me and talks to me, all the more bearing in mind the incomprehensible hurdle of his deafness. I’ve read a comment that his music was groundbreaking because he didn’t hear anyone else’s music that could influence him, but I somehow think this diminishes the man’s innovative genius. He was the first great composer who successfully overcame the extreme difficulty of balancing the sound of cello and piano.

The reason for this piece is a new release of a double CD by the Two Pianists label of Beethoven’s six sonatas for cello and piano, played by Peter Martens (cello) and Luis Magalhaes. One can listen to several recordings of a work or works and then suddenly a recording comes along that makes one sit up and really take notice. This was exactly my reaction on listening to these six magnificent pieces. The two musicians worked closely with Beethoven expert and researcher, Dr. Stuart Young, with regard to the correct tempi. The music is familiar but is played with such gusto – it’s vibrant and exciting and one can literally feel the energy and enjoyment radiating from Martens and Magalhaes.

If you don’t know this music, then these two CD’s are a must for becoming familiar with it. If you are familiar with the music, I cannot recommend these recordings highly enough. This is, in my opinion, a must for any lover of Beethoven’s music.

There is a most interesting and informative booklet about tempi and how, according to Beethoven’s pupil and friend, Carl Czerny, the composer wanted the music played. This is a beautifully produced and recorded product with excellent sound.

Lorraine Braid, FMR May 2011

“Peter Martens delivers brilliantly incisive and spirited accounts of all these works and makes a particularly good case for the cello arrangement of the Horn Sonata op.17. “

Joanne Talbot, The Strad Feb 2011

“Twee Stellenbosse musici – die tjellis Peter Martens en die Portugees gebore pianis Luis Magalhães – het al diep spore in die Suid-Afrikaanse kunsmusiekbedryf getrap. Hul jongste bydrae is ’n uitmuntende dubbelalbum van al Beethoven se sonates vir tjello en klavier: die twee (in F en G) van op. 5, in F van op. 17, in A van op. 69, en die twee (in C en D) van op. 102. Dié twee CD’s is in bepaalde opsigte baanbrekerswerk, met dié dat Martens en Magalhães gaan kers opsteek het by die musikoloog en Beethoven-spesialis dr. Stewart Young. Die doel was om opnuut te kyk na die sonates, en so na as moontlik die korrekte tempi deur die ganse oeuvre bepaal.

Met die eerste deurluister is ’n mens bewus van taamlik maklik waarneembare tempo-keuses, sou jy by ’n gegewe punt jou beroep op die veel ouer opnames van Casals, Fournier, Tortellier, Heinrich Schiff en meer onlangs Truls Mønk.

Vir dié doel het die musici hul ook vergewis van die insigte wat spruit uit die navorsing van Beethoven se groot student- bewonderaar, Carl Czerny. Czerny is baie beslis oor die tempi-aspekte van Beethoven se musiek: “Dit is … ’n fundamentele stap om die korrekte tempo’s te bepaal, want ’n foutiewe tempo-keuse verander die karakter van die musiek en die stuk is misvorm.”

Plaas jy gedeeltes van die Martens-Magalhães-kombinasie neffens byvoorbeeld dié van Fournier, of enige van die ander, met miskien die uitsondering van Mønk, blyk die uitvoeringspraktyk aansienlik te verskil. In die voortreflike CD-boekie, vol leersame inligting danksy deeglike navorsing, verwys hulle dikwels na die metronoom se tempo-aanduidings, wat Beethoven nié vir sy tjellosonates verskaf het nie. Vandaar die onmisbaarheid van Czerny se opvattings.

In ’n ander opsig gee die album ’n oorsig van die kreatiewe proses van Beethoven se komposisionele lewensduur. Die ses sonates oorspan sy drie komposisie-tydperke. (Sés, met die insluiting van op. 17, wat hy self vir tjello herskryf het vanaf sy aanvanklike Sonate vir Franse horing.) Wat oorkoepelend uit dié sonate-stel blyk, is hoe merkbaar ligter die aanslag word, en hoe misleidend die tjello as ’n ideale “treur”-instrument kan wees. Daar is deurgaans gewis liriese oomblikke in die pragtige samespel tussen die tjellis en pianis, byvoorbeeld aan die begin van op. 69.

In die blitsige Rondo van die op. 5 no. 1 lê daar selfs in die klankkonflikte tussen die uiteenlopende timbres hoopvolle aspirasies, wat nie so gul uit ander benaderings ontvang word nie. Dié stimulerende vertolkings word onderlê deur puik tegniese versorging en ’n hoogs professionele aanbieding. Inderdaad ’n album wat hoë lof verdien as ’n belangrike klankdokument.”

Beeld, South Africa, Feb 2011 (Afrikaans)

Hoe wriemel ’n mens se gemoed nie as jy ’n musiekstuk hoor en die tempo is net té vinnig of té stadig? Enigiets van ’n kerkgesang wat die orrelis Sondag effens stadig gespeel het tot ’n nagemaakte Michael Jackson se trae “Beat It” of jou gunsteling-concerto waarvan die tempo jou effens ongemaklik stem. Dit kan nogal uiters irriterend wees, want ’n musiekstuk se tempo (soos sy melodie en die harmonieë) is deel van ons ervaring van musiek; daardie onbeskryf¬like iets wat ons laat weet ons is absoluut mal en aangeraak deur die musiek, of dat

5 ons dit gladnie kan verdra nie.Tempo verander tog die ganse aard van enige musiekstuk; maak dit óf vrolik óf melancholies. Maar in die uitvoering van klassieke musiek is die komponis nooit byderhand om jou ’n pols in die regte rigting te gee nie. Oor Beethoven se tempo-aanduidings het musikoloë al dikwels vasgesit, want daar word (onder meer) gesê dat sy musiek vinniger gespeel moet word as sy eie metronoom-aanduidings. (Die metronoom is in sy tyd, vroeë 19de eeu, in gebruik geneem.) Veral die tempo van Beethoven se simfonieë kom dikwels onder skoot, en ’n paar jaar gelede kon Kapenaars juis ’n uitvoering van sy Negende Simfonie teen ’n snelle pas onder leiding van die Amerikaanse dirigent-motiveringspreker Benjamin Zander hier hoor. Twee plaaslike musici verbonde aan die Stellenbosse Konservatorium, die tjellis Peter Martens en die gebore Portugese pianis Luis Magalhães, het onlangs Beethoven se tjellosonates opgeneem. In hul notas by dié dubbelalbum skryf hulle dat hulle saam met die musikus Stewart Young gaan kyk het na wat die Oostenrykse komponis Carl Czerny (1791–1857) oor sy leermeester se tempo-aanduidings sê. Hul uitvoering van en tempokeuses vir die ses sonates is hierop gebaseer. Maar al die debat en opinies oor Beet¬hoven se tempi ter syde, bied Martens en Magalhães hier iets besonders – ’n ryk album met musiek vol bruisende lewe. Tegnies is albei musici se spel bewonderenswaardig, en jy word getref deur hul fyn aanvoeling vir die styl, maar ook ’n soort musikale vryheid wat die musiek met jou in gesprek laat tree. Ook val die hoë gehalte van die opname self op. Die sonates is in die Endlersaal in Stellenbosch opgeneem en die album word uitgegee deur TwoPianists, die platemaatskappy van Magalhães en sy vrou, Nina Schumann. Hierdie opnames van Beethoven se tjellosonates is verruklike musiek wat inderdaad jou gemoed laat wriemel, maar teen nét die regte tempo.

Die Burger, Wayne Muller, Feb 2011 (Afrikaans)

BRAHMS, ARENSKY, LUTOSLAWSKI & COPLAND

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) – Variations on a theme by Paganini op. 35 (arr. for two pianos by R. Silvestri)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) – Paganini Variations for two pianos
Anton Arensky (1861-1906) – Suite no. 1, op. 15 for two pianos
Anton Arensky (1861-1906) – Suite no. 2, op. 23 ‘Silhouettes’ for two pianos
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) – El Salón México (arr. for two pianos by L. Bernstein)

Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann (pianos)

REVIEWS
Technical mastery is blunt when used for self-aggrandizement, especially when one deals with that master of virtuosity Nicolo Paganini. Of this Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhaes were acutely aware, avoiding the temptation to showcase this aspect in their approach to the orchestral sound potential of the “Variations on a theme by Paganini” which Johannes Brahms composed in 1862/3 for the pianist Carl Tausig. Their powerful rendition of the arrangement for two pianos by Constantin Silvestri has perfect clarity of voices. Above all Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhaes have carefully considered the temperament of each variation, so that, for example, Deciso (Book I, XIV) was truly opened up, and the Scherzando (Book 2, III) became a pregnant anecdote. In 1941 Witold Lutoslawski in his “Paganini Variations” rendered the same theme in a rustic way with balanced, dissonant timbres and risky motorics. During 1932 the extant folkloristic colouring appealed to U S American composer Aaron Copland when he visited “El Salon Mexico”. Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhaes experienced it as a nervously vibrating place whose tensions were eagerly and successfully dissolved melodically. A similar though milder concept is contained in the Suite No 1 of Anton Arensky. A troubadour “romance” is paraphrazed ironically, a waltz impudently, and a polonaise mockingly, whereby the technical proficiency of this duo singularly produces a profound expressive power.
PianoNews Dec 2010
H-D Grunefeldt

“This is the second release from TwoPianists to come my way, and it is as exceptional as the first. Two releases may not be quite enough to officially declare a major new duo talent, but from everything Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann (husband and wife) have recorded, they are. Their precise ensemble is complemented by interpretational decisions that make anything they do come alive and remain continually interesting. The repertoire in the current program shows a curiosity to explore new and rare works, which is clearly backed by their excellent judgement to select only those items worthy of their (and our) time.
Brahms’s name on the cover of any two-piano recording makes me immediately expect the Haydn Variations or the Hungarian Dances, or possibly the Piano Quintet as arranged by Brahms. I was surprised to find a two-piano arrangement of his Paganini Variations done by Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri. The well-known bristling difficulties in these variations are skillfully tossed back and forth between the pianists, often doubled an octave higher or lower. Accompaniment patterns are expanded and fleshed out, making for the kind of orchestral textures that can be found in the Haydn Variations. The duo’s clarity and precision make you think it is only one pianist, but the additional sonority and extra notes make for a tour de force.
Then there is an edge-of-your-seat performance of Lutosławski’s brilliant setting of Paganini’s original Caprice with 11 variations and a coda. It should be noted here that Liszt simply translated the original to the piano. He added harmony and pianistic figurations, but kept to the exact format of the original. Lutosławski adds two-piano figurations in a much more contemporary harmonic language. Brahms (and later Rachmaninoff) took the original theme and wrote completely new sets of variations on it.
People familiar with Rachmaninoff’s great two-piano works should enjoy the two Arensky suites. He was Rachmaninoff’s teacher, so it is hardly a surprise that his two 15-minute suites would share a common musical language with the Rachmaninoff works. These are a real find, and given the performances here, might just creep into recital programs more often, especially as a warmup to one of the Rachmaninoff Suites.
The program ends with Bernstein’s superb two-piano arrangement of El Salon Mexico.
The two huge Bösendorfer 280 concert grand pianos are captured in top-notch sonics, and the booklet notes by Barry Ross complete the package for a must-have release.
American Record Guide – January 2011

“Recordings by artists on their own labels usually give a buyer pause, being akin to self-published books. In this case, however, there is nothing to be worried about; there is nothing about this recording that isn’t recommendable. The choice of composers in the program is a little odd, but the piano duo of Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães, theTwoPianists of the label’s name, make it work in what is a technically superb and musically fantastic performance. The virtuosic skills of both Schumann and Magalhães is impressive, but the ability to completely energize the music and draw the listener in completely, in such a diverse selection of pieces, is all the more exciting. The arrangement for two pianos byConstantin Silvestri of the Brahms Paganini Variations does at times double up the lines, making for a thicker sound than Brahms’ original, but the duo’s excellent ensemble playing means that in this case, the sound isn’t much denser than it would be on a single piano. They listen to each other, paying attention to every aspect of playing with another person or persons: timing, texture, phrasing, coloring, etc. It’s that skillfulness that makes their readings of the two Arensky suites a delight to hear. Arensky’s very pianistic writing has idiosyncrasies that can trip up the most talented of pianists, and the ability to handle those smoothly and to bring out all of the character in the music in a way that immediately engages the audience is rare, and is probably why his duo piano music isn’t more widely known, even among pianists. The much more well-known works by Lutoslawski and Copland(arranged by Leonard Bernstein from the orchestral work) are just as easily and colorfully performed by the duo. The recording’s sound is also excellent, capturing both pianos fully and clearly, although the engineering is slightly on the quiet side, so your speakers may need to be turned up more than usual. Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães together give this music an appeal that should reach beyond just fans of two piano literature.”
AllMusic.com – Patsy Morita, 20 Sep 2010

“The twopianists performance equals (and this is saying something) the famous version with Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire Rachmaninov: Suite No. 2, Op. 17; Ravel: La Valse; Lutoslawski: Paganini Variations. A classic performance.”
Amazon.com – Scott Morrison, 19 Aug 2010

“Thrilling and flamboyant, tender and passionate, vibrant and dynamic, Magalhães and Schumann excel in the raptly uplifting and colourful writing of El Salón México. I am puzzled why I have not come across the excellent duo of Magalhães and Schumann previously. What an outstanding partnership they make and just where have they been hiding? I was especially impressed by their unison and the magnificent range of keyboard colour achieved is remarkable. Playing their stunning Bösendorfer model 280 concert grand pianos the assured duo provide interpretations that could scarcely be bettered. There is much excellent music to enjoy here. In fact I loved this disc from start to finish.”
Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International, 20 Aug 2009

“The central Valse of No. 1 with its delicate hesitations and stately confidence is memorable. The Polonaise finale of No. 1 is part romp part grand strut. The Second Suite is in four movements. The first is the melodramatic Le Savant, suggestive of the supernatural and mediums. La Coquette is suitably well coquettish with a glint in the eye and an inveigling smile. Polichinelle is played to the shuddering hilt. Splendid stuff. You can really feel the excitement in the playing. Overall then this is one of the finest piano duo discs with some really exciting playing amid an intrepid choice of repertoire.”
Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International, 20 Aug 2009

“Schumann and Magalhães are magnificent. The numerous virtuoso passages – executed here in astounding unity – are presented with an abundantly flamboyant approach, and fortissimi and pianissimi follow one another as if constituting a natural gesture. The essential thing is that the two pianists are in complete control of the enormous structure. That is why their give and take, the continually pulsating tension points in the work, is so impeccable. This is profound music-making – although music for two pianos so often gives the impression of showing off – and this happens precisely because their technical skills do not in the least affect their purposeful ‘attack’. It is all very exciting, but in between the surges, amazing chord passages and lightning-like leaps and bounds, there lies inherent musicality and loads of musical expressiveness. This is a product of the highest quality, comparable to top-quality products on the international circuit and CD market. It is a recording which, like those of Cliburn and Arrau decades ago, will afford hours of listening and repeated listening pleasure.”
Thys Odendaal, Beeld, 12 Aug 2009

“The repertoire chosen for their second CD release is a masterpiece, listening to the CD is much like attending a very entertaining and exciting concert. The Lutoslawski Paganini variations for two pianos has a marvellous jagged feel which is not easy to play. This is truly creative stuff, the variations are rhythmically and harmonically charged with almost an angry energy, Schumann & Magalhães show remarkable restraint in not going over the top. Copland’s El Salón México arranged for two pianos by Leonard Bernstein is a tour de force, a must listen for rhythmic virtuosity.”
Mike Ford, ClassicFM, 4 Sept 2009

RACHMANINOFF COMPLETE WORKS FOR TWO PIANOS

CD 1
Suite nr.1 Op.5
Suite nr.2 Op.17
Prelude in C#minor Arr. for Two Pianos by the Composer
Polka Italienne Arr. for Two Pianos by Ada Brant
Russian Rhapsody Op. posth (Edited by Maurice Hinson)
CD 2
Symphonic Dances Op.45
Six Morceaux Op.11

Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann (pianos)

REVIEWS

Es una excelente idea la de recopilar toda la música para dos pianos de Rachmaninov, ensombrecida –en algunos casos injustamente– por sus primos mayores, los archifamosos conciertos. El sello Two Pianists ha contado para esta propuesta con la pareja Schumann-Magalhães, que exhibe siempre unas cualidades pianísticas muy buenas y que nunca defrauda. Desconocido para mí, es una grata sorpresa ver cómo el dúo aborda las obras, partiendo de un control absoluto de la coordinación. Actúan como un solo pianista en el plano temporal, pero también en el dinámico, algo igualmente complicado que resulta vital para el éxito de la interpretación.

Las dos Suites ponen de manifiesto esta complicidad, además de mostrar las líneas maestras, el planteamiento escogido para las obras. La música está muy matizada, es sumamente expresiva y convence sin necesidad de llevarla al extremo –como sí hacen Argerich y Freire (Philips) en la segunda, por ejemplo–. Este concepto no se adapta tan bien a las Danzas Sinfónicas, donde he echado de menos algo más de garra. En cualquier caso, estamos ante versiones de calidad que no defraudan en su conjunto, si bien puntualmente podría darse una vuelta de tuerca más.

★★★/★★★★ Jordi Caturla González – Ritmo Magazine, Sep. 2011 

Rachmaninow is reknowned for having created impressive piano works, but what is often forgotten is that the “last of the romantics”, who died in 1943, also composed many piano pieces for four hands. Examples are the two suites opus 5 and opus 17, or the “Symphonic dances” opus 45. Admittedly they are not nearly as popular as the “great ones” but not for that reason musically less rewarding. On the contrary: power, virtuosity, sumptuous harmony, a forceful melodiousness on primordial melodic roots – all of these are strengthened through being expressed by four hands. The Nina Schumann/Luis Magalhaes duo are in full accord with this particular language of sound: inappeasable longing, melancholy coloured with cloudy premonitions, but also elegance and sweet-flowing melodiousness – all possible shadings are abundantly present. 

PianoNews, June 2010 Rafael Sala Review

“With an outstanding debut release, this husband-wife team bursts onto the scene with Rachmaninoff performances that rival ones by the greatest artists of our time. They have the kind of precision that is rarely heard these days and an attention to detail that allowed me to hear new things in works I have known for 40 years (and a few I have learned and publicly performed). Even in the few places where I might quibble with their artistic choices, their interpretations work well musically and are certainly presented effectively.

The two-piano works are all here; Suites 1 and 2, Symphonic Dances, Russian Rhapsody, and the Prelude in C-sharp minor arrangement by the composer. To these are added a two-piano arrangement of the Polka Italienne by Ada Brant and the Six Morceaux for Piano Duet, Op. 11. Technically, you might argue that all of the concertos exist as two-piano works, but those are not here, nor have they ever been recorded since they are really for rehearsal and learning.

The competition in the two-piano works is formidable, led by Ashkenazy-Previn and Argerich-Freire, and I must say that for a basic building block of a Rachmaninoff CD collection, this set by Schumann-Magalhaes might have just edged into first place. Their blistering tempos in the Waltz and Tarantella of Suite 2 does indeed rival Argerich and Freire, who might retain a performance edge, but the superior sonics of the TwoPianists disc and the glorious sound of their Bosendorfer pianos makes this the logical choice.

And the Symphonic Dances by Ashkenazy and Previn is still at the top, but only by a hair. Again the sound of the new disc versus one 25–30 years older does show. The dead-on ensemble of the young team is so good, they even take a moment here and there to show off. The slight retards in the middle of the Suite 2 Waltz are overdone a bit and stretched to their limit as two people at two pianos sound truly as one. It makes the accelerando to the original Presto tempo even more exciting, with again not a single note out of place as they get faster and faster in perfect ensemble. I will go out of my way to catch a performance of theirs. They are off to a great start, so let’s hope for many more records like this.”

James Harrington, American Record Guide

“A new recording of Rachmaninov’s complete works for two pianos is always an eye-opener and this CD from Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães, which also includes an interesting DVD, does not disappoint. Of the two Suites I particularly liked the second, not just because of the duo’s spectacularly flighty exposition of the Valse, a presto which is rendered all the more impactful by the relaxed sway of its ‘big tune’ , but because of its close to impeccable alignment of fingerwork, which keeps buoyant the all-important rhythmic dimension while never assailing the ear with uninvited brashness. The Symphonic Dances started life in the form it appears on the disc, and its demands are as daunting for this ensemble as in the orchestral version. Schumann and Magalhaes are fully equipped for the task, which speaks as highly of their imagination for the music’s ever-altering temporal terrain as of their pianism per se. The finale, a most exacting movement taking the form of Lento assai – Allegro Vivace, is a treatise in duo playing, always mindful of the darker episodes but equally responsive to the music’s fleeting moments of levity. The duo should be pleased with their rendition of the Six Morceaux, Op. 11, for the ‘scherzo’ growls and guffaws with terrific pizzazz while the ‘valse’ is as poetic as it is dynamic. This set, sensitively recorded and thoughtfully put together, deserves great success.” 

Mark Tanner, International Record Review

Literatur für zwei Klaviere nimmt im gesamten klassischen Klavierrepertoire nur einen kleinen Bruchteil ein. Sergei Rachmaninoff hat für diese Besetzung allerdings einige Werke komponiert und arrangiert. Diese wurden nun von der südafrikanischen Pianistin Nina Schumann und dem Portugiesen Luis Magalhaes neu eingespielt.

Mit dem vierhändigen Klavierspiel ist es wie beim Paarlauf auf dem Eis: absolute Synchronität, Perfektion und künstlerisches Gespür sind gefragt, um Publikum und Kritiker zu überzeugen. Genau diese Qualitäten versteht das Klavierduo Nina Schumann/Luis Magalhäes bei seinen Rachmaninoff-Miniaturen sogar noch zu doppeln. Hier fehlt es weder an Eleganz noch an Energie, Virtuosität und Poesie. Mehr kann man wirklich nicht verlangen. 

Claudia Dasche, Deutschland Radio – CD of the Week 06/09/2010

“Rachmaninoff left his homeland and soon became an international music figure. But I doubt he would have dreamt that his legacy would travel so quickly to the southern point of Africa. It is barely one generation later and his complete works for two pianos are released in Stellenbosch, and if today the composer heard this excellent recording, he would certainly be proud. Nina Schumann and her husband, Portuguese-born pianist Luis Magalhaes, recorded an ambitious program with great flair and artistic empathy. One realizes that even the best composers can only put beautiful melody, interesting harmony and rhythmic patterns on paper. It is still the performer who must understand and transmit the essence of the musical feeling. …with the Symphonic Dances it is clear that the duo understands not only the detail, but also the greater architectonic structure.” 

Louis Heyneman, Die Burger

“The interpretations of Schumann and Magalhães are extremely solid: the ensemble is very well coordinated and the balance/equilibrium of the duo is a rule. Thanks to their interpretations, the works here presented sound like one piano with the power and capabilities of two…” 

Bernardo Mariano, Sons Diário de Notícias