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Siegfried Idyll / David Deveau

Release Date: 09/11/2015
Label: Steinway & Sons Catalog #: 30051
Composer:  Franz Liszt ,  Richard Wagner ,  Johannes Brahms Performer:  David Deveau Number of Discs: 1

Deveau?s latest offering explores the interconnectedness of the lives and careers of three musical titans ? Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms ? juxtaposing Wagner and Liszt?s ?music of the future? with the more traditional, established musical forms of Brahms.

Credits:

Recorded December, 2014 at Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA
Funded in part by the SHASS Fund, MIT
Producers: Janice Weber, David Deveau
Engineer: Tom Stephenson

Executive Producers: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner
Artwork: Dr. Michael Durst
Design: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Piano Technician: Christine Lovgren

Reviews:

"On this Read more recording, the pianist David Deveau gives a sensitive account of a fascinating solo piano transcription of Wagner?s ?Siegfried Idyll,? originally written for chamber orchestra as a birthday gift for Cosima, Wagner?s wife. The arrangement is by Josef Rubinstein, a devoted assistant to Wagner. It?s a revelation to hear this sublime, intimate work played on the piano. The harmonic and contrapuntal intricacies come through with beautiful transparency. The album also offers refined, accomplished performances of three Liszt works, including ?Funérailles,? and a well-chosen selection of seven capriccios and intermezzos by Brahms."

-- Anthony Tommasini, NEW YORK TIMES [8/12/2015]

"This is the kind of award-winning classical piano man that?s for the serious classical listener. ... You have to sit down and pay attention because Deveau delights in tackling challenging works and bringing them home from left field without making the trip easy. A talented cat that plays right into the hands of those that really want it real ? no matter what the genre.?

-- MidWest Record

David Deveau's 2015 release on Steinway & Sons is an homage to three of the major figures of 19th century Romanticism, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner. The piano was essential to Liszt and Brahms, and their works remain central in the modern repertoire, though Wagner's few contributions to piano music were minor. Even the title piece, Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, originally composed for a small chamber orchestra, appears here in a piano transcription by Josef Rubinstein, so its place on the program among keyboard works by Liszt and Brahms seems odd indeed. That said, Deveau's sympathy for all three composers is strong, and he makes this recital feel genuinely Romantic and passionate without indulging in the excesses of rubato and inaccurate dynamics typical of the style. While his playing allows for more playfulness and flexibility of tempo in Brahms' Capriccios and Intermezzos, he never veers into exaggerated gestures or sentimentality, and controls the rhapsodic impulse with introspection, most affectingly in the Intermezzo in E flat major, Op. 117, No. 1.

-- AllMusic Guide


Pianist David Deveau divulges the idea behind this recording in the brief album notes, stating the three composers represented "were to greater and lesser degrees, interconnected". Liszt and Wagner, yes. But Wagner and Brahms? They were rivals and contemporaries, though Wagner was twenty years older. Each rather despised the other's music, not least because their styles were totally different. They met on only one occasion and about the only thing they had in common was the enormous size of their egos. That said, there's no need to justify placing their music on the same disc. Actually, the selections here are quite well chosen, even if the Wagner transcription by Josef Rubinstein, well-crafted and honest though it is, doesn't quite adapt well to the keyboard. Still, it's pleasant music and well played by Deveau. Moreover, there appears to be no other currently available performance on record. Wagner mavens may well find this an interesting take on the composer's most popular orchestral work.

Deveau's Liszt is well played too, though there is an instance where it doesn't quite rise to the fever pitch required: in Funérailles the dramatic octave-laced buildup in the second half gains sufficient momentum and power as it proceeds but seems to lose a bit of thrust and energy near the end. The two short Liszt pieces, Nuages gris and Am Grabe Richard Wagners, are very sensitively interpreted, the former work a rather overlooked masterpiece. It's especially haunting and ghostly sounding in this performance.

The seven selections from Brahms' Opp. 76, 117, 118 and 119 are all masterful pieces and brilliantly played by Deveau. He uses a little more rubato (try the B minor Capriccio, Op. 76 #2), as well as numerous changes in dynamics, but always with taste and subtlety. Clearly the pianist has thought out his interpretations in great detail, but never sounds calculating or cold. The C-sharp minor Capriccio, Op. 76 #5, is lovely and stately in Deveau's caressing chords and faultless dynamics. The A minor Intermezzo, Op. 118 #1, for once doesn't come across as austere and cold but rather passionate and even warm. The A major Intermezzo, Op. 118 #2, is another utterly lovely performance, and even the darker works, like the E-flat minor Intermezzo, Op. 118 #6, come across with a more palatable gloom, thanks to the pianist's intelligent and sensitive phrasing.

Steinway Classics has provided excellent sound reproduction in all selections, making this disc a most desirable acquisition for those with an interest in this repertory.

-- Classical.Net

It often seems that all virtuosos have to offer is flash, with pianists in particular competing among themselves to see who can produce the most grandiose version of one spectacularly difficult work or another. Figuring out the staying power of a first-class virtuoso therefore tends to depend on seeing which hyper-difficult piece he or she chooses to represent himself or herself in early performances or recordings. Will it be, say, Mussorgsky?s Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel?s Scarbo, Beethoven?s Diabelli Variations, or perhaps something by Alkan, and what will the choice say about the pianist?s training, interests and likely future? What tends to get lost in all this is pianism of sensitivity and genuine emotional understanding: the fireworks may overawe, but they do not connect at a deeper level. This makes the debut recording by David Deveau all the more treasurable, for this is not a performance that seeks to pound music or listeners into submission, but one that is genuinely thoughtful and looking for emotive and connective elements of works that would not be many pianists? choices for first recordings. Foremost among those is the Josef Rubinstein arrangement for solo piano of Wagner?s Siegfried Idyll, a version of this work (which was originally written for 13 instruments) that is very rarely heard. Deveau gives it an involving, poetic performance that gives this very personal music?written by Wagner to celebrate his son?s birth?a sense of reaching out beyond its original occasion to connect warmly with listeners today. There is connection of a different sort in Liszt?s Funérailles, a kind of musical monument to the dead of the 1848 European revolutions?and a piece in which Liszt?s own prodigious pianism was put squarely in the service of political statement. The power of this piece, and its essential underlying sense of mourning those who died fighting for what might have been, comes through with clarity in Deveau?s impressive reading. The rest of this Steinway & Sons CD is not quite as successful, reaching a bit too far for connections that may be apparent to the pianist but will be less so to listeners. The seven late Brahms works are individually and collectively expressive, and Deveau plays them with skill and understanding, but they do not fit particularly well together (they are taken from four different sets of piano pieces) and do not seem to comment upon or enlarge the world of Siegfried Idyll and Fun érailles. Nevertheless, they are fascinating in themselves, as all Brahms? late music is, and Deveau performs them with a lyrical touch and considerable sensitivity?making them almost into anti-display pieces, ones that delve into thought and emotion. Two short, late Liszt works, Nuages Gris and Am Grabe Richard Wagners, date to roughly the same time as the Brahms pieces but reach beyond them harmonically. They make a somewhat curious capstone for the CD, obviously tying into Siegfried Idyll and the Wagner-Liszt relationship but not connecting in any particular thematic or musical way with the Brahms works. Simply heard as encores, though, they are effective and unusual choices. Indeed, the whole CD is something beyond the usual for a young pianist?s debut recording, and as a result, it stands out in ways that yet another over-the-top virtuoso recital would not.

-- Infodad

The title of David Deveau?s new disc is ?Siegfried Idyll?, which the pianist plays in the transcription by Josef Rubinstein. But the monicker gives no hint of the fascinating connections with the other composers on the recording, both of whom lived in an artistic universe near or extremely close to Wagner.

Deveau opens and closes with music of Liszt abounding in innovation (Nuages gris) or morbid beauty (?Funérailles?, Am Grabe Richard Wagners), and follows Siegfried Idyll with two capriccios and five intermezzos by Brahms. While these works are distinctive examples of their creators? art, they share a generosity of expression and harmonic richness that bind them, as if they were friends in conversation.

The Rubinstein version of Siegfried Idyll is a curiosity and a treat. It doesn?t try to compete with the colours of Wagner?s original scoring but rather provides a new window on to the music?s intimacy and tenderness. Deveau plays the piece with subtle patience, inflecting and shaping lines to luminous effect. Then again, the pianist is at home in all of this repertoire. ?Funérailles? emerges in a cohesive unfolding of ominous and violent grandeur. The other Liszt pieces, while short, also receive keenly felt performances.

Attention to detail pervades the accounts of the Brahms miniatures, whose coquettish, robust and poetic sound worlds entrance the ear at every moment. Deveau focuses on tonal beauty and nuance, though never at the expense of dramatic urgency. In the pianist?s sensitive hands, those imposing in-laws, Liszt and Wagner, are powerless to upstage Brahms.

-- Gramophone

The works and life of Wagner form a touchstone for the works on this CD, from Liszt?s piano transcription (arr. by Rubinstien) of Wagner?s title work, 2 of Liszt?s works inspired by his personal friendship and musical admiration of Wagner, and then contemporary works of Brahms, which bring more warmth into the program. These are some of Liszt?s darkest works, his technical proficiency sometimes adding a chill to the darkness, so the Brahms capriccios and intemezzi?while still often introspective and melancholy?add a beautiful balance to the shadows. Deveau?s career as a soloist and chamber musician have taken him around the world many times over. This CD presents a thoughtful program of a mature, accomplished artist who has been a ?Steinway Artists? since 1999.

-- The WSCL Blog

Pianist David Deveau assembles a recital (rec December 2014) devoted to the three great giants of late Nineteenth Century Romantic harmony: Liszt, Brahms, and Wagner. The ?revolutionary? tone of the program finds its tenor in the Funerailles of 1849 of Liszt, a work that celebrates the fallen patriots of the 1848 revolts against various monarchs, besides its overt homage to Frederic Chopin. Passionate but restrained, the Deveau performance doesn?t try to overwhelm us with national fervor in the manner of Horowitz or Bolet, but Deveau does convey the tragic muse with authority.

A Wagner assistant, Josef Rubinstein, arranged the originally thirteen-instrument serenade A Siegfried Idyll for piano solo. While Deveau?s Steinway instrument extracts some fine colors from this familiar score, it cannot replace the timbres of strings, winds, and horn that raise the specter of Wagner?s forest evocations. As a piano piece the Idyll emerges in the form of an extended nocturne-improvisation, or a keyboard run-through for a later performance of the instrumental version.

Deveau opens his Brahms group with two capriccios from the Op. 76, the B Minor (the No. 2) and that in C-sharp Minor, Op. 76, No. 5. Deveau takes the Op. 76, No. 2 slightly more marcato than has been its wont, until the last page, where the overlapping voices urge the composer?s innate love for counterpoints. The C-sharp Minor?s jagged accents, rife with upbeats and syncopation, soon erupt into a kind of ballade, heavy in the bass line. The battle between the meters in 6/8, ¾ and 2/4 seems demolished somewhat in the last pages, where duple and triple meters resolve rather grudgingly. Deveau gives the familiar ?lullaby? Intermezzo in E-flat Major, Op. 117, No. 1 a wide spectrum of colors in slow motion, truly a litany of the composer?s sorrows of old age. The A Minor Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 1 makes grand, sighing gestures in descending octaves. When the piece ends on an A Major cadence, it invites the A Major Intermezzo, a rocking motif of great beauty that moves through lovely arpeggios and inversions of the main melody. The middle section in F-sharp Minor Deveau plays with wonderful affection, the two versus three meters in fine canon. Several commentators note the reliance of the E-flat Minor, Op. 118, No. 6 Intermezzo on the Dies Irae of the Requiem Mass, a favorite trope of both Liszt and later Rachmaninov. Brahms moves this moody elegy into B-flat Minor, which Deveau colors with ripe sensitivity. The middle section achieves heroic proportions, still in E-flat Minor but moving in a powerful series of crescendos that suddenly break off, leaving shards and fragments of the heroic impulse, while the original theme becomes lyrically tragic. The little C Major Intermezzo, Op. 119, No. 3 offers some consolation, though it, too, betrays a moment of unbuttoned passion.

Deveau concludes with two late Liszt works, the 1881 Nuages gris and the 1883 Am Grabe Richard Wagners. Respectively atonal and grimly laconic, these pieces embrace ?the music of the future? that had compelled much of the late Romantics? aesthetic. Nuages gris appears mystical and experimental, a forecast of Scriabin. At the Grave of Richard Wagner resounds with somber chords from Parsifal, especially its motto dienen, dienen, as a service to music. Sound engineer Tom Stephenson has captured the carillon sadness of this music in striking hues.

-- Audiophile Audition

While seldom heard today, Richard Wagner?s assistant and musical disciple, Josef Rubinstein, made several alternate versions of the composer?s Siegfried Idyll, originally written for chamber orchestra as a birthday present for Cosima, Wagner?s wife. They include one for solo piano, featured on this album. The Boston-based pianist David Deveau gives a gorgeous and sensitive reading of that piece, along with short works by Brahms and Liszt on this release.

-- WQXR (New York)

If marooned on that desert island we music lovers know so well, I would take the music of Brahms over Liszt or Wagner in a heartbeat. Heck, I?d take Brahms over Liszt and Wagner. I?m not sure it was pianist David Deveau?s intention, but he had me doubting my choice with this unusual program weaving the ?music of the future? with Brahms?s new wine in old bottles.

Mr Deveau?s recital starts with 31 minutes of Liszt and Wagner, brooding, profound, grand (or grandiose) by turns, then moves on to short pieces of the supposed archconservative Brahms for another half hour, and then returns to two short late pieces of Liszt. Brahms seems trite and earthbound compared to his ersatz musical rivals. When the pianist returns to Liszt?s Nuages Gris and Am Grabe Richard Wagners, he gently closes the door on Brahms?s human-scale expression and returns to a fantastical world of visionary, transcendental super-humanity.

Does Mr Deveau urge that we elevate our esteem for Liszt and Wagner above the venerated, unassailable repute of Brahms? If yes, then at least for an hour my heart is moved to reorder the pantheon and favor the controversial visionaries over the 19th-Century?s standard- bearer of classical probity and tradition.

This is another interesting and thought-provoking recital from Steinway. The pianist?s useful introductory essay doesn?t choose sides and neither do his performances; he gives his heart and hands to all three composers, letting us as listeners feel as we will. Excellent sound, excellent piano.

-- American Record Guide Read less