Octo_Russ

Schubert - Piano Sonata 20 [Brendel] 

The last three Piano Sonatas of Schubert are a towering climax to his short life of 31 years, and a towering addition to the Piano Sonata oeuvre too, it is surprising to realize that these last three Sonatas were not universally appreciated until 100 years after Schubert's death, all of them are fairly long [between 35-40 minutes], and it takes time to truly digest them over many listenings, i find the Piano Sonata 21 the most individual of them all, but i still find 19 & 20 like twins!, sometimes it's hard to separate them.

Alfred Brendel is an Austrian Pianist, now 80 years old, i only spoke about his version of Schubert's Impromptus a week ago [13th March 2011], this Sonata was recorded in 1987, Brendel recorded a cycle of 7 discs of late Schubert works in the the late Eighties, and each disc was accompanied by the photography of Gabriela Brandenstein, this one shows Brendel by the grave of Schubert, a really nice thoughtful black and white shot, i especially like the patterns on the tree trunk.

I just love the way Brendel plays Schubert, he brings out the rhythms so well, his is a joyful reading too, in the bright key of A Major, the first movement has lots of ideas presented in quick succession, and then quickly returning again and again like a carousel, slow and fast, loud and soft, staccato and legato, there's a really intense passage roughly a third of the way through [3:51-5:18], where Schubert 'suggests' dipping into the minor mode, the left hand gently rings out a fast heartbeat in the mid keyboard, while the right hand is joyful and skipping in the treble [3:51-4:30], and reaches some high ringing notes at times, but then the bass fast heartbeats turn agitated and become louder treble heartbeats, while the skippy joyful treble turns to a mournful bass [4:30-4:51], the hands swap back, but now the music really does dip into the minor, the joy is turned into a degree of pain [4:51-5:18], a really nice passage indeed, Schubert really knows how to bring out intense drama, and not merely repeat himself over and over again to pad a works length, he seems the master of bringing out subtle variations, and finding different colours and flavours in what he initially presents, a dramatic and thoughtful first movement.

Here's Alfred Brendel playing the first movement on YouTube.