Beethoven Symphonies, Vol. 5 in Bloomington, MN

This is the fifth in a series devoted to the two-piano transcriptions of
Beethoven
's symphonies by
Franz Xaver Scharwenka
(1850-1924), by the team of
Tessa Uys
and
Ben Schoeman
. The series has rightly garnered general praise, and this installment gives a good idea as to why. Two-piano performance was a common way to hear
's symphonies in the pre-recording era, and
Scharwenka
's versions are by no means the only ones, but they are especially effective.
, a virtuoso himself, was a student of pianist
Franz Kullak
, who studied with
's student
Carl Czerny
. Thus, there is a lineage here leading back to
himself. It is a bit surprising that many of the
Uys
/
Schoeman
performances, including those of the
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60
, and
Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
, are world premieres of their respective works, for these are unusually vivid reductions of
to keyboards, with novel solutions to the problem of evoking orchestral textures. Only the
Busoni
Mozart
transcription at the end has been recorded before. The long introduction to the first movement of the
Symphony No. 4
offers quite a variety of shifting textures leading up to the big dominant that opens the Allegro vivace, and
approach them with relish. It is the same all the way through, with performances that not only bring the original symphonies to mind but often offer new insights into them.
Somm
delivers idiomatic sound from the Menuhin Hall, enhancing the experience. The album made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2024. ~ James Manheim