Waleczek Explores Rare and Overlooked Schubert

courtesy of Naxos of America

Exactly one week ago today, Naxos released an album of music by Franz Schubert entitled Rarities and Short Piano Works. The pianist performing these selections is Wojciech Waleczek. I should warn readers that, as of this writing, the Amazon.com Web page for the above hyperlink contributes absolutely no information about what is on this album or why it might be of interest. The good news is that the Web page does include a hyperlink to an image of the back cover of the album; and the paragraph at the top of that back cover is likely to be valuable for all would-be listeners.

I am not sure how many of these pieces (if any) have been recorded for the first time; but, in my twelve-CD gesamte Klavierwerk album recorded by Gilbert Schuchter, there is only one track with a double-digit entry in Otto Erich Deutsch’s thematic catalog of Schubert’s compositions. That entry is the D. 29 Andante movement in C major; and it does not appear on Waleczek’s album, which has an abundance of single-digit and double-digit entries, many of which are fragments. On the other hand Schuchter’s album concludes with the solo piano version of the overture to the D. 732 opera Alfonso und Estrella, which I have not previously encountered in building up my Schubert collection. Also of interest may be the D. 154 Allegro movement, which is basically a sketch for the opening movement of Schubert’s very first multi-movement piano sonata, D. 157 in E major.

My guess is that this new release is likely to be of limited interest, appealing primarily to those that cannot get enough of Schubert’s piano music. Mind you, I am one of those Schubert fanatics; and it is hard for me to resist the opportunity to listen to music that is seldom (if ever) brought to the light of day shining on a piano keyboard. The album may best be described as, for the most part, a presentation of Schubert “trying things out.” Those familiar with the context of those events and what would subsequently follow will find much to engage attention in Waleczek’s offerings. For that matter, I would not be surprised if there will be a few recitalists known for specializing in Schubert that will take the contents of this album as an opportunity to add “something completely different” to the all-Schubert recitals they prepare.

That said, I fear that I do not think I can make a compelling case for anyone else!