Schubert 1828: Philippe Cassard: Piano Sonata D959 and piano duets

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In Philippe Cassard's hands, the declamatory dynamism of the D959 A major Sonata's first-movement exposition takes a back seat, with an emphasis on shapely soft playing that ravishingly comes... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2014 More…

Release Date: 27th Oct 2014
Catalogue No: LDV15
Label: La Dolce Volta
Length: 80 minutes

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D959

Work length37:09

$5.00

$8.45

$10.40

Philippe Cassard

I. Allegro

Track length11:02

$1.40

$2.60

$3.20

II. Andantino

Track length8:11

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

III. Scherzo Allegro vivace. Trio Un poco più lento

Track length5:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Rondo (Allegretto)

Track length12:28

$1.40

$2.60

$3.20

Schubert: Rondo in A Major, D. 951 (Allegretto quasi andantino): Rondo in A Major, D. 951, Op. 107

Work length11:27

$1.40

$2.60

$3.20

Philippe Cassard, Cedric Pescia

Schubert: Allegro in A Minor "Lebensstürme", D. 947: Allegro en La Mineur pour Piano à Quatre Mains, Op. 144, D. 947 "Lebensstürme"

Work length11:18

$1.40

$2.60

$3.20

Cedric Pescia, Philippe Cassard

Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940: Fantaisie en Fa Mineur pour Piano à Quatre Mains, Op. 103, D. 940

Work length18:04

Album only

Cedric Pescia, Philippe Cassard

Schubert: 36 Originaltänze, D.365, Op. 9

Work length0:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

Philippe Cassard

Schubert: Waltz No. 36, D. 365

Work length1:42

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

Philippe Cassard

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About

Schubert’s imaginative world was built from the poetry he set to music throughout his life. The pianist Philippe Cassard has always felt close to those 'Wanderers', those Romantic landscapes studded by stars and moons, traversed by mountains and valleys, those quicksilver moods.

Philippe Cassard has chosen to couple D959 with the three great pieces for piano four-hands, composed over the previous nine months in 1828, to permit the listener to retrace the chronological trajectory in reverse, from the Sonata back to the Fantasy, and to realise that we have here a piano freed from all constraints, orchestral in its power, making use of every resource, cultivating the most extreme contrasts.

Of all possible chamber music combinations, ‘piano four hands’ is the one most complicated to get right: the seating position is unnatural (both players are decentred, the sound is no longer heard stereophonically), only one of the pianists plays the pedals, and the first player’s left hand and the second player’s right constantly get in each other’s way, which sometimes obliges one to adopt acrobatic positions and contortions if one wishes genuinely to play (well) all the written notes.To then play together in a natural manner is a true challenge.

Cédric Pescia is a born Schubertian. He knows how to convey 'Sehnsucht', that compelling melancholy inseparable from so many of the Viennese composer’s works. He has adopted, in his phrasing, the gait of the walker that traverses Schubert’s landscapes. His sonority is songlike, delicate, yet he is capable of unleashing storms in the most dramatic passages!

This album, gathering together four masterpieces of the year 1828, is a declaration of unbounded love for Schubert.

Reviews

December 2014

In Philippe Cassard's hands, the declamatory dynamism of the D959 A major Sonata's first-movement exposition takes a back seat, with an emphasis on shapely soft playing that ravishingly comes to roost throughout the movement's development section.

Schubert 1828: Philippe Cassard

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