Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus
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FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus
András Schiff (piano)
[ ECM New Series / 2 CD ]
Release Date: Friday 12 April 2019
In the latest chapter in András Schiff's ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert's music, the great pianist plays the Four Impromptus D 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert's too brief life: The Three Pieces D 946 ("impromptus in all but name" notes Misha Donat in the CD booklet), the C minor Sonata D 958 and the A major Sonata D 959. Schiff again chooses to use his fortepiano made by Franz Brodmann in Vienna, around 1820. "It is to me ideally suited to Schubert's keyboard works," he has said. "There is something quintessentially Viennese in its timbre, its tender mellowness, its melancholic cantabilità." Critics have agreed, unanimous also in their praise of Schiff's interpretations: "I cannot think of anyone of his calibre who has mastered the fortepiano as well as the modern piano and shown such distinction on both," wrote Stephen Plaistow in an Editor's Choice review in Gramophone. "In Schubert Schiff has a claim to be considered sovereign among today's players, carrying forward the reading and interpretation of him into areas that others have not fully explored."
"The colours are more or less dictated by the instrument… But instead what magical melancholy, and above all modesty, it enables…Schiff is a true master of the instrument and knows how to connect its resources to his individual, yet never mannered, Schubertian vision…If your concern is for emotional Schubertian truth, uniquely illuminated, Schiff's new discs are boundlessly rewarding." Gramophone Editor's Choice June 2019
"At first, the repeated drumming left-hand chords in the C minor Impromptu (which opens the set) grated, then my ear adjusted and took increasing pleasure in the four-pedal instrument's rich variety of tone." Sunday Times
"I can't remember being so spellbound by a performance's last note than I was by the sounds slowly fading from Andras Schiff's fingers in Schubert's A major Piano Sonata, D.959...Never a pounding virtuoso, Schiff responds intuitively to the wandering, intimate thoughts in these sonatas and impromptus from the end of Schubert's life. So, uniquely, does Schiff's gentle piano: perfect for leading the listener into the heart of this extraordinary music." The Times
Tracks:
CD 1
FRANZ SCHUBERT - VIER IMPROMPTUS D 899 (OP.90)
1 Allegro molto moderato in c-Moll 09:32
2 Allegro in Es-Dur 04:39
3 Andante in Ges-Dur 04:59
4 Allegretto in As-Dur 07:21
FRANZ SCHUBERT - SONATE C-MOLL D 958
5 Allegro 10:35
6 Adagio 07:00
7 Menuett. Allegretto - Trio 03:04
8 Allegro 09:13
CD 2
FRANZ SCHUBERT - DREI KLAVIERSTÜCKE D 946
1 Allegro assai in es-Moll 09:12
2 Allegretto in Es-Dur 11:46
3 Allegro in C-Dur 05:31
FRANZ SCHUBERT - SONATE A-DUR D 959
4 Allegro 15:45
5 Andantino 07:13
6 Scherzo. Allegro vivace - Trio 05:30
7 Rondo. Allegretto 12:35
