Erich Höbarth, Alexander Rudin, Aapo Häkkinen - Schubert: Piano Trio No.2; Arpeggione Sonata (2021) CD-Rip

A nod toward historical authenticity is de rigueur in many kinds of performances, but performances of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D. 821, on the instrument for which it was written are rare indeed. The performer who wants to undertake one faces several obstacles. Few examples of the arpeggione exist; the instrument was invented in Vienna in 1823 but quickly fell out of fashion. That might have been because, with six strings (it is something like a bowed guitar), it is quite difficult to play, and Schubert's sonata is the only major work written for it. Yet the instrument has a truly lovely voice, gentle and songful in its upper register where a cellist really has to bear down. Cellist Alexander Rudin has mastered its intricacies here, and the work emerges as quite idiomatically written for its instrument, not at all as a novelty. Better still, Rudin is joined by fortepianist Aapo Häkkinen on an 1827 Graf fortepiano, an ideally appropriate instrument. (Curiously, the origin of the arpeggione played by Rudin is not given.) The fortepiano gives the arpeggione room for its quieter utterances, and the pair have a fine sense of ensemble. The sonata is paired with the Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, D. 929, and the performance, although clean and sparkling, especially in the Scherzo, does not plumb the depths of the work's melodic mysteries as some others do. Because of the Arpeggione Sonata, however, this is an essential find.