Schubert - 8 Impromptus [Uchida] It's good to mention Uchida's version of the complete Schubert Impromptus, it's my second favourite version after Brendel, Uchida is recorded in a fairly reverberant setting, but not overly so, a warm recording, and it's good to have her thoughts on Schubert, she did a cycle of late Schubert music in the late Nineties.
Mitsuko Uchida is now 62, born in Japan, she made this recording in 1996, the booklet front cover shows a side profile shot of Uchida [photo by Walter Schels], a nice idea, the whole thing may have worked better with a dark background, and some nicely chosen highlights, but i like it a lot, the maroon logo strip at the top stands out from the rest of the black and white.
Impromptus 1-5 & 8 were terrific today, and yet i know this music with such familiarity, that maybe i get 'used to it'!, certainly i felt that some element was missing, maybe i just wasn't in tune today, my all time favourite Impromptu, is the first one from the second set, i call it No5 [D935/1], it's the most glorious piano piece ever, it seemingly goes on forever, its complexities and rhythms always excite me, Uchida leans towards the staccato end of the spectrum, and with such a lovely lyrical and flowing work like this Impromptu, any jagged staccato corner can seem harsh, and there's a few thorns you could get snagged on, also she seems to play slightly fast, not teasing out the full lyricism and beauty that's locked within, the essence of this piece is a lot of 'call and response', the treble plays a short section, and the bass replies, and then the treble replies to that, and the bass in return replies back again, a real dialogue that really goes somewhere, not mere copy-catting, but... i just know the Alfred Brendel versions, and somehow Uchida misses the truly sublime, Brendel can make the music dance and sing, there's a chimerical impishness [pun intended!] in his playing, Uchida is more straightforward, and yet Schubert's music is so incredible, that if you play it merely very good, it's still great, these are still tremendous interpretations.
Here's Andras Schiff playing the Fifth Impromptu [D935/1] on YouTube.
