The
Arc II
in the title of this release by pianist
Orion Weiss
indicates that it is the second in a set of albums pertaining to war; the first album was subtitled "
From Before World War I
" and contains works from that era.
has the subtitle "From During World War I World War II, During Times of Grief," rather unwieldy, but suggesting an innovative feature of the album (and of the coming
Arc III
), namely that
Weiss
includes 19th century works that are emotionally relevant. Thus, his
Shostakovich
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61
, has as its counterpart the emotionally turbulent
Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 9
, of the young
Brahms
, in which
seems to suggest that
depicted the disordered mind of the mentally ill
Schumann
. The
is probably the best thing here, a rare non-Russian performance that captures this sonata's violent grimness (and its profoundly chilly slow movement) exceptionally effectively, but the album is not unrelievedly dark.
Ravel
's
Le tombeau de Couperin
was composed in memory of
's dead war comrades and also of his mother, but it is a quiet, delicate, slightly melancholy work, not a somber one (
remarked that "the dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence").
's performance is entrancing, and he does well to end with two of
'
Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122
, the last things he ever wrote, and beautifully closing his lifelong engagement with the recently deceased
Clara Schumann
. ~ James Manheim