Octo_Russ

Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Tabe] 

From one Sonata to the next, yesterdays Blog entry was about Schubert's Piano Sonata 20 by Alfred Brendel [20th March 2011], Kyoko Tabe's way with Schubert is different, she's certainly slower and thoughtful in her interpretations, but also a word about the recording, it's very warm, and quite reverberant, there's a glow to it, i felt that i wanted more treble, more of an analytical recording, it can certainly sound like a warn bassy mush at first, but the ear quickly adjusts, and i found that it hardly got in the way of the enjoyment of the work.

Kyoko Tabe is Japanese, born in the late Sixties / early Seventies i believe, she must be roughly round 40 today, she has recorded extensively for the Denon Classical label, and made quite a number of Schubert recordings, this Sonata was recorded in 1993, the booklet front cover shows an excellent photograph of Kyoko Tabe [by Toshiaki Takeuchi], a very soft focus shot, with a very thoughtful pose, and with a nice balance along with the lettering.

Tabe makes the first movement take a mammoth 22 minutes almost!, but she does play the exposition repeat, which makes it even longer, and being fairly slow too, also adds to the minutes, the rest of the Sonata takes roughly 23 minutes!, so the first movement now becomes nearly half of the work under her hands, she takes the very opening slow indeed, almost like chanting a sacred incantation, soft and reverent [0:00-1:03], i must admit that this opening has the utmost delicacy and... well, just something i can't even name, i fell in love with it when i first heard Alfred Brendel play it, and it still gets to me, Kyoko Tabe playing it slow makes sense too, treated in all its beauty and tenderness, with those deep deep rumbling bass trills at the end, and then it opens out, like a flowering / blooming [1:06-1:26], lovely and just so right and perfect, the opening gentle tune comes back in power [1:47-2:11], when she plays the exposition repeat opening [5:45-6:45], it now sounds a bit faster, but only 3 seconds on the clock, but surprisingly it sounds more 'right' than the opening, and a further repeat of the opening [15:23-16:24], is similar in duration, right after the exposition repeat, new material starts up, a variation of things that have gone before [11:02-11:38], sounding sadder / melancholy, there's a lovely aching note sustained [11:32], just so perfect, Schubert knows how to tug at your heart, and later a triptych of deep bass trill rumblings [13:51, 14:08, & 14:27], deep down you can take at random any one minute section in this movement, and find so much to enjoy and talk about, for me one of the most perfect Piano Sonata movements.

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