"Some labels want us to believe that only a handful of pianists are worth recording. They can’t be farther from the truth. If I think there are more than one hundred, I’m probably still too pessimistic. Every year a multitude of pianists graduate from the world’s music schools, universities and conservatoria -or whatever one may call them- and a lot more than one ‘cum laude’. The problem is that most don’t get a podium. Undiscovered, unpromoted, and unknown is the fate many must endure and overcome.
Four years ago, Lisa Maria Schachtschneider crossed my path with Feminae: The Female in Music - Schachtschneider. I didn’t know her, but her brilliant piano playing aside, I appreciated (and shared) her plea for equal recognition of female composers and soloists.
Now she is back with another intriguing subject: Planet Earth, with the subtitle “As Within, So Without”. Some explanation is needed, and so she does in her own philosophically underpinned words in the liner notes about the four elements all humans carry inside and “can perceive externally with our senses as water, fire, air and earth” linked to awareness of the environment. It’s debatable, but what is no doubt of importance to the listener, is how her lofty ideas, sprung from a feeling of happiness in her own, Swiss adopted environment, materialized in her recital choices.
Lisa Maria may not be part of the ‘handful’ of the international podia, she certainly is ‘notable’ in her own world, stretching from Würzburg in Germany, to Quarten, in the Eastern part of Switzerland. There she grew into an accomplished talent radiating ‘positiveness’ pursuing the inspired intent to preserve a fragile environment; a passionate pianist who projects her inside convictions into musical expressiveness outside. A wonderful combination and prerequisite for spreading one's wings elsewhere, ‘leaving’ the ‘comfort zone in a creative way’, as Lisa Maria summarized after a tour with her Trio One World in India in early 2024.
As in most recitals, there are ups and downs. Not as regards her playing, but more specifically about the chosen works. Despite having to limit herself to the thematic choice of water, fire, air and earth, neatly grouped into WASSER, track one to four; ERDE, track five to twelve; LUFT, track thirteen to sixteen; and FEUER, track seventeen to end, she has delved up some hardly or unknown jewels of varying substance by female (what else?) composers like Faustine Hasse Hodges ‘Lake Shore Dream’ (in the water section) Amy Beach ’From Grandmothers Garden’, Martha von Castelberg’s Piano Sonata (both in the earth section), and Sophie Gräfin Wolf Baudissin ‘Traumereien’ (in the air section). All of them beautifully interpreted. She furthermore excels in depicting the variety of moods and colours as demanded by Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin, and Stravinsky and I must admit that I found ‘In Memoriam’ by Ruth Bakke as depressing as undoubtedly meant by composer and interpreter alike.
Going back to the beginning, I wondered if belonging to the ‘handful’ makes one as happy and spirited as Schachtschneider apparently is with the life she leads. Ambition has multiple facets. I think that Lisa Maria found hers’…… Maybe that ‘some’ labels and Concert Hall managers should look at things differently, broadening their scope as well.
The dynamics Schachtscheider applies come best to life if the recording engineer is worth his salt. Manfred Schumacher is such a man. The only thing some people seem to appreciate more than I do is the surround bit. This time it’s more to my (modest) liking. As the French say: “Chacun son goût”."
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