Schubert - Piano Sonata 14 [Lewis]

What a lovely disc this is, Schubert's last Piano Sonatas have overshadowed his earlier efforts, and rightly so i guess, but i have a soft spot for 14 & 16, and here we have a little gem from Schubert, something you'll miss if you think his earlier works are sub standard, Schubert had a short life, so even though this was composed five years before his death, it's still considered his one of his 'middle' works, written in the key of A Minor, it's first movement is bleak yet compelling, it stands up well to his later works, and this still remains a revelation for me, i gushed about this work a couple of years ago [20th March 2013].

Paul Lewis is English, he's now 43, i consider him 'young', a sort of rising generation of Pianists, but of course he's not so young anymore, but he has a long life ahead of him, and he's getting better!, i hear he's going to start recording some Brahms solo piano music, i would love to hear his take on the Handel Variations!, he recorded this disc in 2001, the front cover photograph [by Jack Liebeck], is a basic black & white, not bad at all, some of the face is really washed out though, these Harmonia Mundi discs all have a colour theme, and this one's light blue, i like the finished product.

Well it was the tremendous first movement which stunned me again this time, there's an underlining agitation / worry to this music, of course it's in a minor key, and this makes the thing sound so tragic, it's starts off with a sad tune, but then this same tune explodes into a forte version [0:52+], and it's those chords which reply in the bass which are so dramatic [0:56 & 1:03], growls and rumblings in the bass all over, and then shock!, a beautiful calm tune appears out of nowhere [2:04+], and even though it seems a complete juxtaposition, it fits perfectly!, however even in this tune you can't help to hear an anger below the surface, but this tune is a wonder to behold, the opening returns [3:33+], and it's so good to hear the same music that i heard a few moments ago, and especially the beautiful new calm music [5:35+], the movement has a central section [7:03+], using those same bass chords in anger, and a whimsical version of the calm music [8:15+], up in the treble, but also a bit manic too, you can hear themes come and go, the very opening returns again [9:06+], and the music varies in slightly new tangents, this time Schubert presents the calming music in a more complex echo [10:54+], which is really lovely, a nice little highlight, what a tremendous creation from Schubert, and Lewis plays it with real passion. 

Here's Brendel playing the Sonata on YouTube.

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.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 20 [Uchida]

I will always love Brendel's Schubert over any other, it's almost as if he's Mr Schubert himself, i don't know anyone else that so personifies a Composer like that [maybe Gould and Bach?], but Uchida's Schubert is a resounding success also, she doesn't quite match the sheer fun and danceability-ness that Brendel does, but i love her Schubert too, and it's good to hear her in these two late masterpieces, this same Sonata has been in my Blog twice before played by Uchida [8th February 2011 & 8th September 2012].

Mitsuko Uchida is Japanese of course, she's now 66, i love the booklet photos [by Walter Schels], showing a side profile of Uchida, with the lettering in white over the back / dark side of her head, very effective indeed, why can't other companies really think about their visuals when releasing a disc of music?.

I loved the two inner movements the best, one achingly slow and thoughtful, the other the opposite, skittish and thrilling, this second movement Andantino just clinches it for me, a slow tread of a movement, it's power is in it's constant build, small aching variations in tone and volume at just the right points, the opening tune is expanded later by going up an octave in to the treble later [1:27+], that just sounds so pleading, of course Schubert wouldn't be Schubert if he didn't have one of his central episodes [3:05+], one of his very best of all, full of drama, lots of treble trapeze heroics, it's hard to mention everything that goes on here as there's so much of it!, trills in the treble, monotonous repeated notes, and these treble stabbings [3:54 & 4:12], and these four treble smashes [4:46 / 4:52 / 5:04 / 5:09], trying to silence everything else downwind the keyboard, when the opening returns again [6:05+], at first it can seem like an anti-climax, but it's a beautifully poised tune, there's a bit of Satie / Gymnopedie in there, it really gets hold of you with its spell, if you let it!.

Here's Uchida on YouTube, playing this movement.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 14 [Lewis] 

Another disc that gets it's first spin, i really like Lewis, maybe because he's a Brendel disciple!, i'm usually not the greatest fan of his middle period Sonatas [though i do have a soft spot for Sonata 16], but this sounded so fantastic today, it could easily pass for late Schubert, especially the first movement, i'm still discovering Schubert, and he's still got some tricks up his sleeve that i haven't noticed yet, and Paul Lewis is a great advocate, what a great little 24 minute masterpiece this is.

Paul Lewis is English, he's now 40, he made this recording in 2001, the front cover photo [by Jack Liebeck], is a black & white shot, a good pose, it goes well with the light blue theme, and it's visually well laid out, a lovely disc to own.

The Sonata is cast in three movements, and it was the first movement that blew me away, and it's this first movement that takes over half the works length, it's in the key of A Minor, and there's an underlying sense of tension and conflict there, but there's also some of the most heartwrenching episodes of pure 'unleashment', i like the darkness of it all, Lewis captures the outbursts of anger with some nice fortes, right from the start Schubert creates a murky world, restrained playing by Lewis, the piece seems to get bogged down in the lower depths of the keyboard, but when the opening theme is restated [0:52+], it suddenly explodes into a very exciting forte, there's still that darkness, but now there's real animation too, and then as almost an antidote, Schubert gives us a tender variation [2:04+], and this is where my heart begins to be gripped, the opposites sway the heart, and Schubert can add single 'out of the way' notes which just have me in raptures [3:04], how can just a single note change the whole mood?, Schubert is a master of repetition, and themes and ideas are reused again for the most exquisite effect, of course Schubert has to have what appears to be one of his central episodes [7:03+], but instead it turns into a cascading carillon of bass notes [7:22-7:46], while the treble hammers out chords, now that really gets the hairs on your neck standing up, and Schubert treats us to a jumpy variation of the second theme [8:15-8:54] lots of high treble here, now that's a really satisfying variety to what's gone on before, and Schubert continues to stun me with ideas, there's this very tender variation of a previous theme [10:54-12:04], almost a gentle sort of fanfare, even though there's some fortes towards the end, the very ending is not of the highest calibre Schubert, almost as if he was unsure how to close off the movement satisfyingly, it leaves a finality to it quite open, but the verdict is, that this is one of the greatest movements that Schubert wrote.

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

Beethoven - Piano Sonata 14 'Moonlight' [Kovacevich] 

I hate these huge boxed sets of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas, which i only have a tendency to listen to a few Sonatas from, the other end of the scale are these one disc surveys, which are kicked out to cover all the Sonatas, and again i hate filling up my disc racking with a dozen single discs to be some sort of completist, there's a fine middle ground which suits me, and that's to buy the odd disc from the odd Artist, it works for me, it frees up collecting Beethoven's early Sonatas, which i find are really quite weak, and allows me to delve into Sonatas i like, collecting the more exciting Sonatas in abundance, this is one such disc, some famous works, alongside some middle period Sonatas that may seem like trifles, 19 & 20 are really short, but there's something about their brevity which is really appealing, this is one of the better issues from Kovacevich.

Stephen Kovacevich is American, he's now 72, and he recorded this disc in 1999, the images throughout have the theme of the moon [using the idea of the 'moonlight' Sonata], of course Beethoven never named his Sonata the 'moonlight', so of course it's got nothing to do with the music, but i like the visuals, the actual disc itself is a complete moon, the booklet cover shows a grainy shot of the moon, the colour theme is all dark / light blue, even on the white areas of the back inlay, you can see a sort of 'map of the moon', i like the layout, the small blue lettering is great, and of course the EMI logo adds a dash of colour to the whole thing.

The first movement is tremendous under Kovacevich's hands, it's easy to get the tempo wrong, too slow and it drags, too fast and you lose the heavenly poetry, i think Kovacevich gets it about right, maybe just a tad slow in places, the opening sounds just right, full of gravitas, it's very hypnotic, it's halfway through that close attention to speed and volume has immense paybacks, towards the end there's a section where some of the most delicious accidentals descend down the keyboard [4:59-5:26], and then the bass plays the melody like some grief laden tolling [5:30+], a great finish, and an inspired close, listening to this again was so good.

Here's Daniel Barenboim playing the first movement on YouTube.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Rubinstein] 

In the early days of buying compact discs, i demanded that all discs should be digital [DDD], well later i somewhat relaxed that as 'well recorded' discs that were analogue were acceptable as long as they 'sounded as if' they were digital!, and that's been relaxed further, as long as it's well recorded and it's not mono, it's taken me a long time to delve into some of the 'older guys' in the Classical world, certainly Szeryng / Kempff / Magaloff / Arrau / Curzon / Richter, but also i need to delve into Oistrakh / Heifetz / Grumiaux and others [yes big omissions!], so here's my first foray into Rubinstein, and it's good to get to know him, i hear his Chopin Nocturnes are the definitive set, so maybe i ought to go there next, but it's wonderful not just my musical love is branching out into all sorts of areas, but now i'm delving into a wider range of interpreters as well.

Arthur Rubinstein [1887-1982] was Polish, but later became an American citizen, gifted with a photographic memory of scores, he preferred not to practice on the piano heavily, rather relying on the moment of performance to take wing, he recorded this work in 1965 at the age of 78, the sound is very good considering the age of the recording, the front cover picture is by Eva Rubinstein [his Daughter], showing Rubinstein seated at the piano at home, a nice intimate picture, i like the way it has a light blue green border, the composer and works lettering at the top and bottom of the photograph, but the Pianist lettering could have been better done, but all told a great issue.

As this is a first listen, i always get a general vibe of what i think, i certainly find Rubinstein in the 'staccato' pool of Pianists, in fact very much so, he loves to bring out the percussive elements of piano playing, and yet... he has such a way with line and forward thinking, that there's still the bigger picture of legato throughout even his staccato episodes, of course the great work that this is, it's so hard to beat the first movement, and i always talk about it, it's the 'perfect' Piano Sonata movement, and it's so sublime, it's almost an Impromptu in nature, Rubinstein plays the movement without the exposition repeat, which cuts the movement down by 5 minutes to 14 minutes, also he plays it quite flowing, keeps it moving, i hear others who almost come to some sort of standstill, Rubinstein plays the opening gambit very straight [0:00-0:50], not hanging on notes, or letting 'silence' do some of the talking, i would have preferred taking a little more time to let the beauty of the melody sink in, i've always felt that timewise this opening melody works best if it takes 1 minute, but then Rubinstein uses this straightforward approach to his benefit later, as he doesn't treat the piece as some soppy happy song, rather there's a serious and sombre virtuosity there, Rubinstein gets the fortes right [1:26+], and i like the way he keeps busy in the bass hand, some Pianists use the left hand as accompaniment, but here Rubinstein makes things more like an equal voice, after where the exposition repeat would be, we delve into a more Minor key melody [4:48-5:21], now that sounds so wonderful, and a little later here's where Rubinstein comes into his own with using a great degree of staccato [6:00-7:15], where others smooth out the notes with more of a legato, this is so different than ive heard others play, it's like he's extra emphasising what's not really there, but i actually like the effect, i like those morse code jagged lines, the more i hear Rubinstein, the more i like, also i had a look at the score online, and it's enlightening following along.  

Here's Arthur Rubinstein playing the first movement of Piano Sonata 21 on YouTube.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Uchida] 

This was an enlightening experience listening to this disc again, i played it earlier this year [2nd February 2012], each Pianist is obviously different, with different ideas, the 'ideal' Pianist makes you forget about the interpretation and just concentrate on the beautiful music, this time listening to this disc, i find that Uchida doesn't do that, there's moments where i think 'Schubert wouldn't approve of that!', she can be clumsy in certain areas, too slow here maybe, too fast somewhere else, i'm not entirely convinced by her speeds, in other places she's too much staccato / jagged, where a smoother line would have benefited, Schubert's bubbly and lyrical, and even though there's dance rhythms in there, there's always this legato / linking line, Uchida can stagger at times, and other times she blurs things, where to pronounce would have been much better, don't get me wrong, there's certainly more things she does right than wrong, but as i get to know a certain work really well, i can be more critical when things go wrong, as i notice them more, and certainly on this listening my critical ear was more sharpened than ever before, this just goes to show how much i've progressed in truly listening to things, i'm still a fan of Uchida though, also i must say the recording doesn't help, a warm bass recording, that can blunt things somewhat, which adds to Uchida's idiosyncrasies, however this is still one of my favourite interpretations of this work.

Mitsuko Uchida is originally from Japan, but now she's living in England, she's now 63, and she made this recording in 1997, the front cover photo is by Walter Schels, a portrait with Uchida with her eyes closed, dark background and clothing makes the face stand out, and white lettering, the whole thing's devoid of colour, but i still believe it works well, the back inlay works even better, as the lettering works very well indeed, very nicely laid out.

As almost always, it's that first movement which gets me every time, Schubert's Piano Sonata 21 is my favourite Sonata amongst all Composers, and the first movement is head and shoulders above the other three, .

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

Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Lewis] 

It was only a couple of days ago that i was raving about the Uchida disc with Piano Sonatas 19 & 20 on it, a now here's another great disc with late Schubert Sonatas, Paul Lewis is able to fit these last two Sonatas on the same disc as he omits the exposition repeats, and lewis is very much a Brendel disciple, being taught by the great man, Lewis is likely to become a Pianistic giant, i hope he branches out further than Brendel, taking in Chopin and French Composers, i played this work last summer [8th June 2011].

Paul Lewis is English, he's now 40, still young enough to have the best years ahead of him, he recorded this disc in 2003, the front cover photo is excellent [by Alvaro Yanez], a clever shot at the treble end of the keyboard, lovely creative use of those hands, lots of nice elements in the shot, well done Harmonia Mundi.

The first and third movements were tremendous, but yet again i have to laud Schubert for the first movement, one of the greatest creations in the piano repertory, and the opening is one of the most beautiful things to ever start a piece, wonderful delicacy here by Lewis [0:00-0:58], he gets the speed right, in my book it should take 1 minute, it's enchanting stuff, in a lot of ways it's very much a loose bunch of variations on this opening 'theme', i love the way it opens up like a flower [1:01+], and there are some strong forte sections [1:39-2:09], there's a lovely sad 'variation' about a third of the way through [5:04-5:35], and the one right after it [5:35-6:17], which is nice and bubbly, .

Here's Zoltan Kocsis playing the first movement on YouTube, though it's a slow performance!.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 20 [Uchida] 

It's so good to have this disc in my collection, and it's so difficult for me to hear the individuality in each Pianist, i at one time would put her in the 'staccato' box of Pianists [rather than the 'legato' box], now i'm not so sure, she certainly isn't like Brendel [my favourite], maybe i need to concentrate on her pianism more, rather than on her Schubert when she plays, i hope she now turns her hands to more Chopin, or even Bach, i played this Sonata in early 2011 [8th February 2011].

Mitsuko Uchida is Japanese, she's now 63, and she made this recording in 1997, the photography is by Walter Schels, front and back have the same shot, only the back is a larger print, notice how the lettering is pasted all around thge edges of her face, it's well laid out, it's good to have the timings separate, the front cover is a side profile, minimal lettering, and instead of black and white, it's almost a dark sepia and white, but i like the visuals for this disc.

The whole Sonata is fairly even, every movement is every bit as good as every other bit, i guess the first movement just gets the edge, the recording is done very much in the Philips style, capturing the piano very well, quiet passages as well as fortes, Uchida plays the exposition repeat, which adds roughly 4 minutes to the movement, and yes i do get her slight staccato-ness, she like to pronounce notes rather than muddy them in a lovely legato, and when the music calls for a forte, she dutifully obliges, she's certainly dramatic, and the exposition repeat goes where i thought it would [4:02], she's also exacting in her notes, i find Schubert a 'bubbly' Composer, and Uchida rightly gets the rhythms right for the movement to bubble along nicely,.

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