Schubert: Piano Sonata, Pauset: Kontra-Sonate

Pauset, Brice, Schubert, Franz

Staier, Andreas

AECD 0421

According to Brice Pauset, the project to frame a piano sonata by Franz Schubert with a contemporary composition initially instilled a great deal of respect in him. All the more so since the piano to be used was to be an instrument of the Schubert period, a Viennese fortepiano from the beginning of the 19th century with a sound characteristic quite different from today's concert grand. Thanks to the restoration of original historical pianos and outstanding replicas, it has become increasingly clear that Romantic piano builders were able to give their composers the instruments they needed to realize their musical ideas. The modern concert grand piano is not the result of unstoppable technical progress, its development in the course of the 19th century rather reflects the radical changes in musical aesthetics and the development of new pianistic techniques. The comparison between Steinway and hammerklavier is not about superiority, but about paradigm shifts in music history. Alfred Brendel also understood this when he formulated in the 1980s that Beethoven and Schubert on the modern piano were tantamount to a transcription of this music to another instrument, even if he never dreamed of playing fortepiano himself. With Brice Pauset's contra-sonata the dialogue between 'old' instrument and contemporary creativity is opened and the composer is enthusiastic about all sound possibilities of the fortepiano. The two movements of his Kontra Sonata frame Schubert's Piano Sonata op. 42 like a picture frame. The incorporation of compositional material from Schubert's sonata into Pauset's piece seems like a homage to his great and deeply revered colleague; moreover, the contemporary composer abstains from any postmodern ingratiation with the techniques of a bygone era. And Andreas Staier's mastery makes this encounter of two very different epochs in a sound medium an intellectual and musical pleasure of a very special kind.

CD x 1

Aeon

12.04.10

3760058364215