Schumann - Novelletten, Op. 21

Track Listings

1. Novellette No. 1 in F Major

2. Novellette No. 2 in D Major

3. Novellette No. 3 in D Major

4. Novellette No. 4 in D Major

5. Novellette No. 5 in D Major

6. Novellette No. 6 in A Major

7. Novellette No. 7 In E Major

8. Novellette No. 8 in F-sharp Minor

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Hailed by the Indianapolis News as "a world of talent, displaying lyrical beauty, percussive driving power never out of control, and never without security and assurance," pianist Nicholas Roth began his formal studies at age twelve, and was receiving critical acclaim for his appearances by the age of eighteen. He has appeared as soloist with the St. Louis Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony under Raymond Leppard, among many others. Roth has been featured in recital series and festivals throughout the United States, Germany, and Spain, including the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series of Chicago, the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, and Sunday Afternoons Live from the Elvehjem in Madison, Wisconsin. Roth was a Beethoven Fellow of the American Pianists Association, which provided him concert management from 1993-96. He has won first prizes in the Young Keyboard Artists Association International and Grace Welsh International Piano Competitions, as well as the chamber music competitions of Tortona and Pietra Ligure, Italy. He was also the recipient of a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) grant that enabled him to further his studies in Germany. In 1988, he was honored by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana for his "contribution to the performing arts, his accomplishments as a concert pianist, and his inspiration to young musicians." Roth holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University, an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and M.M. and B.M. degrees from Indiana University, where he was the recipient of the School of Music's highest honors including the Performer's Certificate and the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship. His teachers include Ralph Votapek, Elisso Virsaladze, Helmut Deutsch, Edward Auer, Emilio del Rosario, and Michel Block. Roth is Assistant Professor of Piano! at Drake University and was previously on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point and Alma College.

Tracks:

Theme Sur Le Nom Abegg, Varie Pour Le Pianoforte, Op.1
Markiert Und Kraftig
Ausserst Rasch Und Mit Bravour
Leicht Und Mit Humor
Ballmassig, Sehr Munter
Rauschend Und Festlich
Sehr Lebhaft, Mit Vielen Humor
Ausserst Rasch
Sehr Lebhaft
Sehr Rasch, Mit Leidenschaftlichen Vortrag
Ziemlich Langsam
Kraftig Und Sehr Markiert

Customer Reviews:

A Pianist with Maturity beyond His Years--and Technique to Burn.......2006-03-02

I'd expect a young pianist to bring appropriate freshness and spontaneity to Schumann's Opus 1, with which the composer hoped to dazzle in the manner of Henri Herz and other manufacturers of virtuoso piano variations popular in the 1830s. What I didn't expect of so young a performer as Kotaro Fukuma (born 1982) is the kind of maturity needed to make Schumann's Opus 111, written over twenty years later, sound as involving as the masterworks of the composer's youth. In fact, the first time I heard these three pieces (in a performance by Claudio Arrau), I thought they represented a great falling off of talent. Fukuma shows us definitively that that's a mistake in judgment. The first two pieces of Opus 111 especially are straight from Schumann's troubled heart and speak of the great sadness of his last years as well as of nostalgia for a happy past the composer probably never really knew. Fukuma plays these pieces as they need to be, with simplicity and directness. His is certainly among the finest performances of the work I've ever heard.

Just as welcome is Fukuma's performance of the Novelletten. The first two pieces in the cycle are among Schumann's most popular, and Fukuma chooses perfect tempi for them and phrases them with sensitivity. The surprising thing is how attractive he makes the rest of the pieces seem. At one time, I confess, back in LP days, I'd take out my record of the Novelletten and listen to the first two pieces, lose interest, and walk away while the pianist ground through the rest of the cycle. Well, I've come to fully respect Schumann's invention in these wonderful works, and Fukuma helps me see the error of my ways all the more. He brings great warmth and fantasy to them--a faultless technique doesn't hinder his efforts either.

Naxos provides bright, clean piano tone and a nice sense of the hall (the Performing Arts center of the County Day School in King City, Ontario). Altogther, a very distinguished entry in Naxos' Laureate Series.

Poetry and Fire: A Pianist to Watch.......2005-07-31

This is the debut album of Kotaro Fukuma (b.1982), the 2003 winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Earlier, at age fourteen, he had won a prize at the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition in Salt Lake City. He has studied in his native Japan and in Paris with Bruno Rigutto. This recording is part of the 'Laureate Series' of the Naxos label which has been bringing us recordings of emerging artists.

This is an all-Schumann recital that begins with an exciting 'Abegg Variations,' Op. 1, and is followed by the 'Novelletten', Op. 21, and ends with the late 'Drei Fantasiestücke', Op. 111. The 'Abegg Variations,' dedicated by the young Schumann to Meta Abegg, a young pianist. The theme on which the variations are based is a literal tonal transcription of Mme. Abegg's name A-B-E-G-G (in non-German notation this would be A-B flat-E-G-G). (This theme has always sounded to me like the inversion of a theme in 'Carnaval' and indeed it is later itself inverted.) It starts with a rather simple statement of the theme in waltz rhythm and is followed by three virtuosic variations that tax all but the most skillful pianists. Fukuma manages them with aplomb as well as finely judged musicianship. One notes that in all these works Fukuma plays with less sustaining pedal than some pianists -- it's always a temptation to over-pedal Schumann's piano music -- and gains a crispness and clarity often missing in other performances.

The 'Novelletten' are eight short pieces which, reflecting their designation as 'Novellettes,' each seem to tell a story. It seems to me that in the second of these, 'Äusserst rasch and mit Bravour' ('Extremely fast and with bravura') Fukuma almost meets his match. There is some sense that his fingers almost get away from him. But the payoff is that this is an exciting traversal because of the inherent risk of the piece going off the rails. In the other Novellettes he seems to have the measure of Schumann's mixture of the two sides of his own personality, the Eusebius and Florestan personae that Schumann wrote so much about. Hence, my designation of this pianist having both 'poetry and fire.'

'Drei Fantasiestücke' ('The Fantasy Pieces') were written as Schumann was sliding into his final mental illness and they reflect his troubled state of mind. The three pieces are played without pause. The first piece is the most troubled, the second contains a lovely Schubertian melody that is interrupted by disturbing thoughts before the melody returns (ABA). The final piece is a march reminiscent of Schumann's Davidsbündler pieces and other earlier works, but decorated with mysterious arpeggios. Fukuma plays the work with insight and well-judged variation of tone.

This young man is definitely a pianist to watch. One looks forward to hearing him in recital, with orchestra, and on future recordings.

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

Schumann - Novelletten, Op. 21

Manufacturer: Blue Griffin Recording
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Tracks:

Novellette No. 1 in F Major
Novellette No. 2 in D Major
Novellette No. 3 in D Major
Novellette No. 4 in D Major
Novellette No. 5 in D Major
Novellette No. 6 in A Major
Novellette No. 7 In E Major
Novellette No. 8 in F-sharp Minor

Robert Schumann: Carnaval,Op.9/Novelletten,Op.21

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Robert Schumann: Carnaval,Op.9/Novelletten,Op.21

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ASIN: B000009JA8
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Customer Reviews:

Sarah Bernhardt Plays the Piano.......2004-03-04

Picture a middle-aged silent screen star leaning, half-collapsed, against a table, the back of one hand pressed tightly against her forehead, emoting for all she's worth. That's what the playing of Elizabeth Rich reminds me of. There's a lot of sighing, swooning, calling out in alarm, crying buckets of tears. This reminds me - sans the wrong notes - of the willful playing of Vladimir de Pachmann, the great pianist-ham of yore. In fairness, there is less chewing the scenery in the 'Novelettes' but in 'Carnaval' one hardly knows from one section to the next what is coming. There are languorous moments with wobbly tempi followed by flurries of notes that blur accents, harmonies, melodies.

Pass this one up, unless this old-fashioned and highly individual style of playing appeals to you.

Tracks:

Novelletten, Op.21: No.1 Markirt und kraftig-Trio
Novelletten, Op.21: No.2 Ausserst rasch und mit Bravour-Intermezzo. Erwas langsamer durchaus zart...
Novelletten, Op.21: No.3 Leicht und mit Humor-Intermezzo. Rasch und wild-Erstes Tempo-Adagio
Novelletten, Op.21: No.4 Ballmassig, Sehr munter-Noch schneller-Erstes Tempo
Novelletten, Op.21: No.5 Rauschend und festlich-Etwas langsamer-Etwas langsamer-Sehr lebhaft...
Novelletten, Op.21: No.6 Sehr lebhaft, mit vielem Humor-Immer schneller und schneller-Tempo 1
Novelletten, Op.21: No.7 Ausserst rasch-Etwas langsamer-Erstes Tempo
Novelletten, Op.21: No.8 Sehr lebhaft-Trio I. Noch lebhafter-Adagio-Wie fruher/Trio II. Hell und...
3 Encores: Ser for the Doll from Children's Corner
3 Encores: Quelques aspects de 'Nous n'irons plus au bois,' parce qu'il fait un temps...
3 Encores: Ma plus belle histoire d'amour

Album Description

Michel Block, Piano Robert Schumann (1810 - 56): Novelletten, Op.21
1. Markirt und kräftig - Trio
2. Äusserst rasch und mit Bravour - Intermezzo. Etwas langsamer durchaus zart - Erstes Tempo
3. Leicht und mit Humor - Intermezo. Rasch und wild - Erstes Tempo - Adagio
4. Ballmässig, Sehr munter - Noch schneller - Erstes Tempo
5. Rauschend und festlich - Etwas langsamer - Etwas langsamer - sehr lebhaft - Erstes Tempo - Tempo I
6. Sehr lebaft, mit vielem Humor - Immer schneller und schneller - Tempo I
7. Äusserst rasch - Etwas langsamer - Erstes Tempo
8. Sehr lebhaft - Trio I. Noch lebhafter - Adagio - Wie früher - Trio II. Hell und lustig - Tempo I - Stimme aus der Ferne - Fortsetzung. Einfach und gesangvoll - Adagio - Tempo wie im vorigen Stück - Adagio - Fortsetzung und SchluB. Munter, nicht zu rasch - Nach und nach lebhafter - Tempo I - Adagio

3 Encores

Claude Debussy (1816 - 1918)
9. Serenade for the Doll from Children's Corner
10. Quelques aspects de "Nous n'irons plus au bois, " parce qu'il fait un temps

Barbara (1930 -) - Michel Block
11. Ma plus belle histoire d'amour

Tracks:

Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.1 Des Abends
Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.2 Aufschwung
Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.3 Warum?
Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.5 In Der Nacht
Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.7 Traumes Wirren
Fantasiestucke, Op.12: No.8 Ende Vom Lied
Humoreske in B flat, Op.20: Einfach-Sehr Rasch Und Leicht-Wie Im Anfang
Humoreske in B flat, Op.20: Hastig-Nach Und Nach Immer Lebhafter Und Starker-Adagio
Humoreske in B flat, Op.20: Einfach Und Zart-Intermezzo-Innig
Humoreske in B flat, Op.20: Sehr Lebhaft-Mit Einigem Pomp-Zum Beschluss
Novelletten, Op.21: No.1 in F
Novelletten, Op.21: No.2 in D
Novelletten, Op.21: No.8 in f#

Amazon.com

Although Schumann was one of the composers Sviatoslav Richter played best, this is not the most essential disc of this series. This Moscow recording of the six pieces from Op. 12 (Richter always played the same six, leaving out two of the set) is no better or worse than the Prague recordings made at the same time and now available from Deutsche Grammophon. In either case, you do want to hear Richter play these pieces, especially the miraculous speed and clarity of Traumes-Wirren. Richter gave the most convincing performance of the radical Humoreske ever, but his concert recording is even more exciting than this fine studio version. On the other hand, these Novelletten apparently hadn't been issued before, so maybe this disc is essential after all. --Leslie Gerber

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

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1. Novellette No. 1 in F Major
2. Novellette No. 2 in D Major
3. Novellette No. 3 in D Major
4. Novellette No. 4 in D Major
5. Novellette No. 5 in D Major
6. Novellette No. 6 in A Major
7. Novellette No. 7 In E Major
8. Novellette No. 8 in F-sharp Minor