Record of the day: Schubert, “The Last Piano Sonatas”

Franz Schubert
“The Last Piano Sonatas” (2 CDs Philips 438703-2)

When a commentator told Igor Stravinsky that Schubert’s Sonatas were so long that one ran the risk of falling asleep, he replied: “Yes, but what if when you wake up you realize you are in Heaven?”
The architectural vastness of these last Schubertian masterpieces, composed in one go in the short space of a month in 1828 (shortly before his death) has often been used negatively against the composer, considered by many of his contemporaries to be self-indulgent and lacking in synthesis.

The idiocy of these accusations is evident from the first listen; this is absolutely sublime music, and yet we had to wait almost a century for the Sonatas to begin to take their rightful place in the piano repertoire (the credit goes to the great Arthur Schnabel). The temporal dilation, after all, is one of the main characteristics of Schubert’s last period; he reserved for the Lieder the ability to outline a world in a few signs, while the large amount of instrumental works completed together with these Sonatas (the Quintet in C major, the Fantasy in F minor, the Great Symphony in C major, just to name a few) explores classical forms in an exhaustive manner, scrutinizing every corner along vast sound fields that require considerable concentration from performers and audience.

Unlike other romantic authors, Schubert never abuses the listener’s time; every minute is justified by the beauty
melodic developments, which starting from themes of serene singability (Sonata D.960) or Beethovenian virulence (Sonata D.958) develop a discourse of monumental expressive depth, which develops through oases of ecstatic lyricism contrasted by moments of playful lightness, treating the themes as if they were real characters who pass through different states of mind.

Performing these Sonatas properly is very difficult precisely because of the great quantity of dynamic-expressive nuances required, and the need to be at the same time vigilant in controlling the architecture of the structure and spontaneous in rendering its melodic freshness. Alfred Brendel knows how to get to the heart of these works with the wisdom that everyone recognizes in him, sealing in this disc what can perhaps be considered the definitive interpretative version.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.