Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Kovacevich]
This is an extremely fine account of Schubert's last Piano Sonata, in my collection only behind Brendel and Uchida, and i have a good dozen recordings of this work, this was a joy to listen to this disc today, appeared in my Blog twice before [5th February 2010 & 24th June 2012].
Stephen Kovacevich is American, he's now 74, he recorded this disc in 1994, the front booklet cover is a great one [photo by David Thompson], love the pose, a black & white shot, showing Kovacevich leaning on the lid of his piano, lovely reflection underneath.
Well as usual, it's that sublime first movement that always gets me, it's a mammoth thing, made even longer here by Kovacevich engaging the exposition repeat, under his hands it's just over twenty minutes long, it's the first minute that's so heart rending [0:03-0:54], and here Kovacevich is maybe a fraction too fast, the sound for this disc is quite reverberant, but there's a lovely ring to the piano, it suites the opening, but maybe in climaxes later it can be a little too much, the opening theme returns again and again, love the way Schubert presents it in forte near the beginning [1:34-2:01], Schubert produces 'unique' music for the exposition repeat transition [4:45-5:07], and after five minutes Kovacevich repeats the opening [5:10-6:01], it's great to hear the opening music all over again, and Kovacevich takes exactly the same amount of time!, in the developmental section [9:59+] there's some great music, sublime ideas by Schubert, he really plumbs the depths at times, never straying far from the opening idea, Schubert descends into his inward looking private worlds [12:00-13:13], sometimes i seriously question if the whole movement is some kind of a set of disjointed variations?, it's a superb creation by Schubert, and well executed by Kovacevich.
Here's Kovacevich playing the Sonata on YouTube.
Stephen Kovacevich is American, he's now 74, he recorded this disc in 1994, the front booklet cover is a great one [photo by David Thompson], love the pose, a black & white shot, showing Kovacevich leaning on the lid of his piano, lovely reflection underneath.
Well as usual, it's that sublime first movement that always gets me, it's a mammoth thing, made even longer here by Kovacevich engaging the exposition repeat, under his hands it's just over twenty minutes long, it's the first minute that's so heart rending [0:03-0:54], and here Kovacevich is maybe a fraction too fast, the sound for this disc is quite reverberant, but there's a lovely ring to the piano, it suites the opening, but maybe in climaxes later it can be a little too much, the opening theme returns again and again, love the way Schubert presents it in forte near the beginning [1:34-2:01], Schubert produces 'unique' music for the exposition repeat transition [4:45-5:07], and after five minutes Kovacevich repeats the opening [5:10-6:01], it's great to hear the opening music all over again, and Kovacevich takes exactly the same amount of time!, in the developmental section [9:59+] there's some great music, sublime ideas by Schubert, he really plumbs the depths at times, never straying far from the opening idea, Schubert descends into his inward looking private worlds [12:00-13:13], sometimes i seriously question if the whole movement is some kind of a set of disjointed variations?, it's a superb creation by Schubert, and well executed by Kovacevich.
Here's Kovacevich playing the Sonata on YouTube.
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