Schubert: Late Piano Works

The music is very familiar, yet somehow this Italian pianist manages to make it all seem as though created on the sour of the moment – every phrase feels like part of an ongoing soliloquy. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2019, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Release Date: 14th Jun 2019
Catalogue No: AUDITE97765
Label: Audite
Length: 72 minutes

International Classical Music Awards

2019

Nominee - Solo Music

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

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

Work length43:51

$10.00

$12.90

Andrea Lucchesini

I. Allegro

Track length17:19

$4.00

$5.15

II. Andantino

Track length8:29

$2.00

$2.60

III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace - Trio. Un poco più lento

Track length5:23

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Rondo. Allegretto

Track length12:40

$3.00

$3.85

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor, D537

Work length22:05

$5.00

$6.50

Andrea Lucchesini

I. Allegro, ma non troppo

Track length8:18

$2.00

$2.60

II. Allegretto quasi andantino

Track length8:11

$2.00

$2.60

III. Allegro vivace

Track length5:36

$1.00

$1.30

Schubert: Allegretto in C minor, D915

Work length6:16

$1.00

$1.30

Andrea Lucchesini

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About

Florentine master pianist Andrea Lucchesini begins a 3 part recording schedule for Audite dedicated to interpretations of Schubert’s late works. Lucchesini was born in 1965 in Tuscany, for him music knows no limits, and studying musical modernism has, naturally, informed Lucchesini's approach to his favourite composers of the past, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

The series opens with two sonatas that are closely linked to one another, alongside the atmospheric Allegretto in C minor, D. 915 of 1827. The Sonata in A minor, D537, written when Schubert was twenty years old, features a dance-like melody to which he would return eleven years later when he worked on his mature Sonata in A major, D.959. The reworking of the theme highlights the distance between Schubert's middle and late creative periods. What is initially a rousing, though slightly traditional tune, later appears embedded in a richer harmonic framework, but also in a more virtuosic form, at times almost transfigured.

It is this compositional and emotional range in Schubert's music that is especially fascinating to Andrea Lucchesini. "One recognises the difference between the artist who entertained his friends at social gatherings, and the composer working in solitude - without any prospect of publishing or performing his works, completely confined to his internal world where he felt many precipices. One has to take a plunge into his emotional labyrinth, not only to become intoxicated with his fabulous themes, but also to recognise their infinite variations that take one's breath away. This is how the work of a performer became a complete immersion for me."

Vol. II, featuring Piano Sonata No 21 in B flat major and Three Piano Pieces, D. 946, will be released in spring 2020. Vol. III, presenting Piano Sonata No. 18 & Piano Sonata No. 19, is scheduled for release in autumn 2020 and will complete the recording series of Schubert's late piano works.

Reviews

September 2019

The music is very familiar, yet somehow this Italian pianist manages to make it all seem as though created on the sour of the moment – every phrase feels like part of an ongoing soliloquy.

March/April 2020

[D959 Andantino] His halting gait, as if too fearful to go forward for what lies ahead, captures the essence of Schubert peering over the rim into the abyss with shocking and shattering clarity. Lucchesini is able to make the movement’s central section, with its uncontrolled paroxysm of rage, sound truly manic, as it should. This isn’t just pianism of consummate technical skill, it’s artistry that makes the instrument speak and tell us a story.

August 2019

In the A minor’s opening Allegro, Lucchesini’s massive, granitic approach decidedly takes Schubert’s ma non troppo qualifier to heart. His outsize dynamics impart an austere countenance to the music…Fine annotations and generally good engineering that tends towards harshness at the loudest moments.

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Schubert: Late Piano Works

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