"I have composed a big sonata and variations for four hands, and the latter have met with a specially good reception here, but I do not entirely trust Hungarian taste, and I shall leave it to you and to the Viennese to decide their true merit" So wrote Franz Schubert in 1824, evoking the popular 19th-century genre for 4-hands piano that publishers were always pestering him to write for. In his brief life Schubert devoted 32 compositions to this form and the least of these pieces, be it a ländler, polonaise or march, radiates with all of his finesse and sensitivity. Three are incontestable masterpieces, in the same rank as his sonatas or quartets: the Variations D813, the Fantasie D 940 and the Rondo D 951. All three date from the composer’s final years, a period that gave birth to his most accomplished works.
In concert, Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov have played Bach’s 'Well-Tempered Clavier', with Staier at the harpsichord, alongside Shostakovich’s '24 Preludes and Fugues', with Melnikov at the piano. Sharing a keyboard evidently suits them just as well; their unique musical complicity bringing together four hands and two immense talents.

SCHUBERT’S DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE DANCES
Star pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard presents Ländler, a collection of delightful dances composed by Franz Schubert. Rustic and cheerful, these miniatures display a fascinating side of Schubert’s musical persona. Their simplicity is deceptive, as these dances are frequently shaken up by Schubert’s harmonic wandering soul, yet remaining lyrical, picturesque and tuneful. For Aimard, there is a kinship between Schubert’s Ländler and Kurtág’s Játékok, pieces that he often performs side by side, sharing a combination of playfulness and Modernism that also calls the great 20th-century miniaturist Anton Webern to mind. By avoiding almost any repetition, Aimard evokes a sleepwalker’s journey rather than a series of dances.
A renowned champion of twentieth-century music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has released multiple acclaimed albums in his exclusive contract with Pentatone, including Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (2018) and Visions de l’Amen (2022), along with Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata & Eroica Variations (2021). He also joined Tamara Stefanovich in Etudes and Frames (2023), with music by Vassos Nicolaou, and recorded Bartók’s Piano Concertos with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen (2023).

“An outstanding album, was Gramophone magazine’s verdict on the Arod Quartet’s last release, a programme of Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Webern. Remaining in Vienna, the young French quartet goes back to the time of Schubert. “We wanted to explore several stylistic phases in Schubert’s life,” they explain. The centrepiece is his gripping Quartet No 14 (‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’/’Death and the Maiden’), written in the final years of his short life and complemented here by the Quartets No 4 and No 12 (‘Quartettsatz’).

Gramophone Award, Choc du Monde de la Musique.

四重奏：在四重奏的领域中，弦乐四重奏是最重要而且数量也最多的一种形式。弦乐四重奏的乐器组合通常是两把小提琴、一把中提琴及一把大提琴，另外也有作曲家是采用大、中、小提琴各一把，再加上一把低音提琴的组合，但数量并不多。 许多资深乐迷都公认，弦乐四重奏是最「清纯」的一种乐曲形式。这是因为我们可以将弦乐四重奏视为提把「弦乐合奏」的乐器数目，删减到四剩四件，而每一件乐器分别担任一个声部。由此一「群体」的观念来看弦乐四重奏，则它是非常「精简」的。另外弦乐四重奏所用的四件乐器都是提琴家族的成员，它们之间有著相同的特质，所以整体音色的表现最为「纯粹美丽」。 正因为弦乐四重奏是如此「精纯」的音乐方式，如果想要完美地演奏弦乐四重奏曲目，那麼四位演奏家之间的协调合作就变得非常重要，换句话说，这四个人的「默契」良好与否，以及是否具有团队精神，往往就成了演出是否成功的关键，这也是为什麼演奏弦乐四重奏乐曲的，多半是专业的四重奏团体，而很少是由四位独奏家临时凑合来演奏的原因了。 自古典时期以来，重要的作曲家都曾谱写弦乐四重奏，例如海顿就写了七十四首、莫扎特有二十六首、贝多芬十六首、舒伯特十五首、舒曼三首、门德尔松六首、布拉姆斯三首、德沃夏克八首、柴可夫斯基三首，一直到廿世纪的作曲家如巴尔托克、肖斯塔科维奇等人也都写有弦乐四重奏作品，可见弦乐四重奏是很受作曲家们喜爱的乐曲形式。 既然有「弦乐四重奏」，那是不是也有「木管四重奏」以及「铜管四重奏」呢？答案是有的，只是在数量上和弦乐四重奏比较起来，少得可怜。先说「木管四重奏」吧！依照前面谈过的重奏曲的组合概念来看，「木管四重奏」应该是由四支木管乐器所组成，但是最为作曲家们采用的组合方式却是「长笛+单簧管+双簧管+法国号」。看到这份名单您一定会觉得奇怪，法国号不是铜管乐器吗？怎麼会被运用在木管四重奏中？是的，法国号虽然是铜管乐器，但经过许多前辈音乐家的「实战经验」发现，三支木管搭配一支法国号，在整体效果上比起采用四支木管要来得更好听，因此这个组合也就被延续下来，而成了许多人所乐於采 用的模式，至於它的名称之所以仍然用「木管四重奏」，是因为虽然加入了法国号，但乐曲中主要部份仍然由木管乐器担任的缘故。当然这个组合只是木管四重奏中较常被采用的形式，真正由四支纯木管所组成的四重奏也有，只是数量上更少了。 接著我们来看看铜管四重奏。有一个奇怪的现象，那就是当作曲家想要为各种铜管乐器来写重奏曲时，他们常常都是写五重奏，这使得铜管四重奏的曲目显得非常稀少，倒是有的作曲家会为四支相同的铜管来写四重奏，例如四支法国号或四支长号的四重奏都有人写过。 除了以上提到的几种四重奏外，其他的四重组合比起三重奏的种类上就更多样了，例如有钢琴加上三把提琴的「钢琴四重奏」，也有钢琴搭配三支木管乐器的四重奏，另外一支管乐器加上三把提琴的四重奏以及一把吉他配上三把提琴的四重奏也不难找到。甚至还有像舒伯特为小提琴、大提琴、长笛和吉他所写的四重奏等等，各式各样的四重奏还等著您慢慢去发掘欣赏呢！