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Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus

András Schiff (fortepiano)

Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus

Awards:

There are moments when the music seems to call for a grandeur which this instrument can't produce, but with this recording Schubert's pianistic world is fundamentally transformed.

BBC Music Magazine, July 2019

More reviews

Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus

András Schiff (fortepiano)

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Awards:

There are moments when the music seems to call for a grandeur which this instrument can't produce, but with this recording Schubert's pianistic world is fundamentally transformed.

BBC Music Magazine, July 2019

More reviews

About

In the latest chapter in Sir Andras 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 cantabilita.”

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 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.”

Among other accolades, the first volume of Schiff’s exploration of Schubert on fortepiano was ‘Recording of the Month’ in both BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone, ‘Editor’s Choice’ in Classical Music magazine and International Piano’s ‘Choice’.

Contents and tracklist

Schubert: 4 Impromptus, D899 (Op. 90)
Work length26:39
1. Allegro molto moderato
Track length9:32
2. Allegro
Track length4:39
3. Andante
Track length4:59
4. Allegretto
Track length7:29
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 19 in C minor, D958
Work length29:52
1. Allegro
Track length10:35
2. Adagio
Track length7:00
3. Menuetto (Allegro)
Track length3:04
4. Allegro
Track length9:13
Schubert: Klavierstücke (3), D946
Work length26:36
1. Allegro assai
Track length9:12
2. Allegretto
Track length11:46
3. Allegro
Track length5:38
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D959
Work length41:03
1. Allegro
Track length15:45
2. Andantino
Track length7:13
3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
Track length5:30
4. Rondo (Allegretto)
Track length12:35

Spotlight on this release

Awards and reviews

  • Presto Recording of the Week
    12th April 2019
  • Record Review
    20th April 2019
    Record of the Week
  • Gramophone Magazine
    June 2019
    Editor's Choice
  • BBC Music Magazine
    July 2019
    Instrumental Choice
  • Presto Recordings of the Year
    Finalist 2019
  • Presto Recordings of the Year
    Winner 2019
  • Limelight Magazine Recordings of the Year
    2019
    Recording of the Year
  • International Classical Music Awards
    2019
    Nominee - Solo Music 
  • The Guardian Classical Albums of the Year
    2019

July 2019

There are moments when the music seems to call for a grandeur which this instrument can't produce, but with this recording Schubert's pianistic world is fundamentally transformed.

June 2019

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.

July 2019

The Brodmann has a somewhat edgy tone, verging on clatter in its higher range, very unlike a modern grand piano. It is close to the sound-world Schubert would have had in mind when penning these works, and the instrument’s lesser power allows for greater intimacy and a softness of tone reminiscent of a guitar. This quality runs through the Klavierstücke and the slow movements of both sonatas. Schiff’s playing is sublime throughout but powerful when the need arises. Excellent sound.

12th April 2019

Schiff defines Schubert by ‘his modesty, his humility, his lack of ego’; the same qualities are evident in every bar of these performances, which quietly command absolute attention rather than clamouring for it. These are profoundly affecting interpretations born out of a long-term loving relationship with both music and instrument, and ones to which I can see myself returning for years to come.
Katherine Cooper

5th May 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.

19th April 2019

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.

Limelight Magazine July 2019

There’s a magisterial freedom of expression in performances of intelligence, emotional engagement and penetrating musicality. If you only know Schubert on the pianoforte, these marvellous accounts open up endlessly fascinating new vistas.

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