Nomination Gouden Label Project - Franz Schubert, the sensitive soul from Vienna, is especially known for his enormous treasure of songs, but he wrote so much more in his far too short life. The Flemish piano duo Vermeulen - Peeters recorded all his works for four-hand piano, still on a Tröndlin pianoforte from Schubert's time (1825-'30). No one had done it before them on such an instrument.
For six years the duo, together with the CD label Et'Cetera, worked on seven CDs that encompass his entire oeuvre. It is hours of music of which Schubert's very first work, at least the first work in the Deutsch catalogue, is immediately one of these series. Schubert was 13 years old and threw himself into composing with full adolescent fervor. Okay, the Fantasie in G, D1 is not his masterpiece, but you can already hear the later Schubert coming through and well, of course it is full of references to those from whom he took lessons and whom he looked up to. That is quite normal, especially for such a young boy who dares to do something he wants to place alongside the works of those great masters. And whether Schubert was on equal footing.
Jan Vermeulen and Veerle Peeters gave a presentation concert of the last of the seven CDs at Jan Vermeulen's home, as they have done with several CDs and on other occasions. An old barn was thoroughly converted into what was almost the ideal concert hall for chamber music, at least in terms of acoustics and intimate atmosphere. Somewhere in the countryside, where you absolutely would not expect it, you can now and then go and listen to the very best, relaxed, familiar, comradely and above all enjoying all that beauty that Schubert left to the world. You simply cannot believe it, the man who officially began composing at age 13 died at 31. Eighteen years, no more than that lasted his career which missed the big breakthrough because of his young age and his lack of insight into how to make money. Others benefited from it. Try to imagine a single musician managing to perform all the hours of music that Schubert wrote in 18 years. And all that music deserves to exist, must exist. Nothing is mediocre, not even that first youthful sin. When you listen to his Fantasie in d, D9 you are already puzzled because here you notice an enormous evolution and that in such a short time. An evolution that would not stop. The young Franz was 18 years old when he composed the song of all songs, that pierces through the heart: Erlkönig. 18 years…
Yes, I have always been a Schubert fan, whether it is as serious as with Jan Vermeulen for example, I do not know. The pianist has devoted roughly half his life – over 30 years – to the work of Schubert where the piano is involved. He has been playing together with Veerle Peeters for 20 years now. In that time those four hands became one. There are only very few piano duos where you simply cannot hear that there are two pianists at work and then in such fragile music.
You can assume that CD number 7 is of the same quality as the six preceding ones. And that quality is undisputed as what we today call world-class and rightly praised to the heavens by numerous reviewers at home and abroad and crowned with prestigious awards and mentions. Do I really need to go into detail here, how both heirs of Schubert – yes, can I not put it that way? – present everything to our ears? To do something different for once, I won't do it. Listen and you understand what I mean, you understand why Klassiek Centraal nominates this series of soon to be 7 CDs with the Gouden Label Project.
More information, also about the concerts of the piano duo Vermeulen-Peeters, can be found here.
- WHAT: Presentation concert CD number 7 in the series Schubert Four-Hand by the piano duo Vermeulen – Peeters
- WHERE: at Jan Vermeulen's home, 22 December 2018
- PUBLISHER: ET'CETERA Records[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAhT3OrqK4[/embed]