Sonata in B flat Major; Moments musicals, D 780

One of the hardest questions for a musician to answer is "Who is your favorite composer?" Personally, I have often been asked this question, but I was never able to limit myself to a single composer. I came very close to choosing one, however, during my preparations for this CD, in fact very close indeed. For all that this choice may appear to be forced, subjective, and of a temporary nature, it is not. Not when one thinks of how many extraordinary piano and chamber music works, songs and symphonies Franz Schubert created during his all-too-brief life. This way of thinking sheds a different light on the choice, and justifies it. Nevertheless, Schubert avoided two larger forms: the opera and the concerto. The reasons for this could have included his character, which was in part deeply introverted, as well as his distaste for virtuosity, which he saw as a kind of exhibitionism of the soloist in front of the orchestra which accompanied him; in the same way, the frequently banal or superficial libretti of operas may have put him off. In no way did this indicate a lack of dramatic ability, for his music is not only exciting, but goes far beyond, it penetrates deeply into the listener's senses. He lived in an unusual time. He lived in the interval between the Viennese Classical Style and Romanticism, in a world which was stylistically completely new, different, and exceptional. His music is characterized by the clarity of its form and the complexity of its structures: often it is so subtly conceived that one can distinguish paper-thin layers of differing inspiration.....