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.