Schubert - Four Impromptus - Harmonia Mundi: HMC902021 - download

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Staier reveals no shortage of finely-judged colours in the finale's central episode… playing its lyrical major-mode passages with admirable lightness of touch, and its C minor outbursts with... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2009, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 27th Apr 2009
Catalogue No: HMC902021
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 70 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

September 2009

Editor's Choice

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major, D894

Work length37:08

$5.00

$6.25

I. Molto moderato e cantabile

Track length15:50

$1.60

$2.00

II. Andante

Track length8:06

$1.20

$1.50

III. Menuetto. Allegro moderato

Track length4:12

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Allegretto

Track length9:00

$1.20

$1.50

Schubert: Four Impromptus, Op. posth.142 D935

Work length33:39

$5.00

$6.25

I. Allegro moderato (F minor)

Track length10:12

$1.40

$1.75

II. Allegretto. Trio (A flat major)

Track length5:48

$1.00

$1.25

III. Thema Andante. Variations I-V. Più lento (B flat major)

Track length10:28

$1.40

$1.75

IV. Allegro scherzando (F minor)

Track length7:11

$1.20

$1.50

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Four Impromptus that look towards the sonata model, a sonata entitled 'Fantasie': it would appear that, in the works recorded here, Schubert was trying out all the possibilities of cyclic construction.These opened out before him new formal perspectives that would extend the conventional limits - just two years before his death.

Andreas Staier is renowned worldwide for his interpretation of classical and post-classical music on the historical fortepiano. His current repertoire includes works from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which he performs on both the harpsichord and the fortepiano. He is regularly invited to perform at leading music festivals as well as in the most prestigious concert halls worldwide. Andreas has recorded extensively and his recordings of Die Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, accompanying Christoph Pregardien, have won many awards. Andreas Staier now records for harmonia mundi.

Reviews

June 2009

Staier reveals no shortage of finely-judged colours in the finale's central episode… playing its lyrical major-mode passages with admirable lightness of touch, and its C minor outbursts with all the forcefulness and drama they need.

September 2009

It's evident throughout that Staier has the full measure of this quietly remarkable work… The Impromptus are equally persuasive, matching Uchida in the sense of journeying within each work, matching Lupu in beauty of sound in the poignancy of No 2, and finding an even more unbridled approach to the Hungarian inflections of No 4. Regardless of your attitude to fortepianos, if you love this music, you'll want this interpretation. Staier is unquestionably one of the most probing and thoughtful musicians around today.

5th July 2009

The clarity and brilliance of the scale passages in the fourth Impromptu and in variation five of the third are simply dazzling. Exquisite, too, in the sonata is the sudden hushed chord of B minor in the 10th bar and the trancelike beauty of the minuet’s B major trio. Equally striking is the power of the instrument’s fortissimos.

The Independent on Sunday 10th May 2009

More than 20 years after Melvyn Tan's revolutionary EMI recording, fortepianist Andreas Staier's performance has a confidence and clarity that make the modern grand piano sound clumsy...Staier's tempi are well judged, his cadences beautifully sculpted.

Schubert - Four Impromptus

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