Badura-Skoda and Demus Play 4-hand Schubert

Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus on the cover of their new album (courtesy of Naxos of America)

One of the most treasured items in my now-defunct collection of vinyl recordings was a two-disc album released by the Bruno Walter Society. It was an audio document of a four-hand recital given by Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus consisting entirely of compositions by Franz Schubert. Last month the Austrian Gramola label released a two-CD album that does not quite reproduce the vinyls that have departed from my collection, but it comes close.

Of the nine selections in this recent release, eight were recorded on January 6, 1978 in the Brahmssaal (Brahms room) of the Musikverein building in Vienna. Only one of those selections did not register as familiar. The ninth selection was recorded much later, on October 6, 2007 in the Salle Gaveau, a concert hall in the headquarters building for the Gaveau piano manufacturer in Paris. That selection was the D. 940 fantasia in F minor, which was not part of the Bruno Walter Society collection. On the other hand the Walter Society release included the D. 812 (“Grand Duo”) sonata in C major, which is not part of the Gramola release.

The major work on the Gramola recording is the D. 818 “Divertissement à l'hongroise” in G minor. The shorter pieces include the two rondos, D. 608 in D major and D. 951 in A major, the D. 813 set of eight variations on an original theme, the two D. 886 “Marches caractéristiques” in C major, and the variations movement from the D. 823 “Divertissement sur des motifs originaux français” in E minor. The encore selection is the first (and most familiar) of the D. 733 “Marches militaires” in D major. There is also an arrangement by Johannes Brahms of three of the Ländler in the D. 366 collection of seventeen (which is the item that I did not recognize from my vinyl recording).

I purchased the Walter Society vinyls at a time when I was gradually building up my listening and playing knowledge of Schubert’s four-hand compositions. I had heard Badura-Skoda give a recital at Yale; and, while my memory is a bit fuzzy, he may have performed with Demus on that occasion. I am almost certain that most (if not all) of the program was four-hand. To this day, that Yale setting was probably the most intimate in which I have listened to that four-hand repertoire.

On the other hand (pun somewhat intended), back in the days when I was doing computer science as my “day job,” I would generally take my Dover edition of Schubert four-hand pieces with me when I went to conferences and usually found a partner among the other conferees. (On one occasion I found a colleague up to playing D. 812 in its entirety during the early evening cocktail reception. That attracted a few listeners and even a bit of applause!)

Bearing in mind such a strong personal attraction to both the music and the players, there is no way I would not wax ecstatic over all the selections. However, what registers most strongly is the fact that the chemistry between the two pianists is just as strong in the 2007 as it was during the 1978 recital. Schubert has been “front burner” music for the better part of the extensive careers of both Badura-Skoda and Demus, meaning that the 2007 recital amounted to a “together again” program. However, without the specific recording details on the back cover, most listeners would not recognize that D. 940 was recorded at a different, and much later, occasion than the rest of the album.