With the Ninth Symphony, the South African piano duo of Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman conclude their world premier recorded survey of Beethoven’s symphonies arranged for one piano four hands by Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924). On balance, Scharwenka’s textural decisions are more discreet and idiomatically savvy than those of such 19th-century “house arrangers” like Selmar Bagge and Hugo Ulrich, who tend to use thick doublings and tremolos to excess in loud passages. If Scharwenka’s four-hand Ninth is less of a virtuoso tour-de-force compared to Liszt’s solo piano and two-piano transcriptions, the duo’s exemplary ensemble values and musicianship still manage to convey the music’s size and scope. What is more, the pianists do so without resorting to affetuoso mannerisms of phrasing, voicing, accent and tempo modifications that one sometimes hears from pianists playing Beethoven symphony transcriptions.
In the first movement Allegro, they take a centrist’s view of the composer’s “ma non troppo” and “un poco maestoso” directives. By opting for and adhering to a moderate basic tempo, the pianists make expressive points through contrasts in color, articulation and pedaling alone. Think about the corresponding moment in the similarly paced 1970 Karl Böhm/Vienna Philharmonic recording, and you’ll sense what Uys and Schoeman are after. Likewise, their intelligently unified Scherzo benefits from moderation (and a double repeat), enabling the pianists to consistently maintain the dotted rhythm motive without it lapsing into a duplet. Since a piano lacks a string section’s sustaining capabilities at slow tempos, Uys and Schoeman sensibly adopt an animated yet flexibly singing tempo for the Adagio that suits both the instrument and the music.
However, any sense of reserve one gleams from the performance thus far is shattered by the ferocity with which the pianists pounce into the fourth movement’s initial outburst. Listeners will note their impeccable timing of the recitative’s declamatory unison lines and reiterations from earlier movements, the joyful energy in the fughetta, and all of the movement’s disparate sections tightly and dramatically integrated into a forward moving gratifying whole. In sum, the Ninth takes its place alongside Symphonies 1, 4, 6 and 8 as the high points of the Uys and Schoeman duo’s Beethoven/Scharwenka cycle.
