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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D537 & 959
HYPERION Mar 2023
CD
$18.49

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 & 3 Minuets / Volodos

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Nov 01, 2019

The new studio album from Arcadi Volodos captures the master pianist’s finely honed interpretation of Schubert’s late Piano Sonata in A major D 959, as well as three of his very rarely recorded minuets: D 334, D 335 und D 600. After spending years performing and refining his interpretation of Schubert’s penultimate piano sonata, Volodos has now committed the work to “tape” for posterity.

For him, a recording is a personal testament to a creative period’s culmination – this explains the relative rarity of a new Volodos recordings. Volodos personally selected the three rare minuets to accompany the piano sonata, additionally choosing to pair the D 600 Minuet with the D 610 Trio. Volodos brings these extremely rarely recorded works to life with his unmistakable tonal brilliance and stylistic elegance. Released 17 years ago, Volodos’s first – and, until now, only – recording of Schubert’s works, coupling the Sonatas in E major D 157 and G major D 894, garnered much praise. “Here is irrefutable proof of Arcadi Volodos’s genius and versatility,” wrote Gramophone magazine at the time. The German specialist magazine Fono Forum observed that “Volodos makes the piano sing like few other pianists today”.

In the intervening years, Volodos’s relationship to the works of Schubert has only deepened. Reviewing his performance at this year’s Salzburg Festival, Der Standard wrote, “When Arcadi Volodos plays Schubert, time stands still.” So, too, this recording offers a snapshot of a master pianist at the height of his interpretative powers.

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REVIEWS:

Every phrase is so exquisitely turned, so perfectly graded in its nuances, so ideally blended – harmonically, melodically and in relation to what comes before and after – that it could be placed on exhibit for all to wonder at. Like all the great virtuosos, he knows how to bring spaciousness to the most technically demanding passages and inner life to the simplest.

– Gramophone

When you witness the palpable stillness Volodos conjures from the opening of the Andante, and when you hear his chiaroscuro, a light and shade beyond the reach of virtually any other pianist, you feel above all compelled to marvel at Schubert’s genius.

– International Piano

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Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 & 3 Minuets / Volodos
Sony Masterworks Nov 2019
CD
$11.98

Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Youn

Sony Masterworks

$16.98 Sep 03, 2021

After his highly acclaimed recordings of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, pianist William Youn, who was born in South Korea and has been living in Munich for many years, began a cycle of piano sonatas by Franz Schubert. The first volume received fantastic reviews: "For the program alone, Youn's selections each offer a characteristic example of Schubert's various stages of compositional development. The playing is of exquisite beauty and simplicity. And in doing so, Youn expands the interpretive spectrum of Schubert's sonatas to include an intimate tone all his own. He leaves room for the music to unfold in a completely unpathetic and unforced manner, while maintaining a constant flow and soft but clear outlines. Youn's playing convinces [...] through flawless, perfectly realized naturalness." (Fono Forum, Album of the Month, 5 Stars)

The second album features the Sonatas nos. 4 (D. 537), 18 (D. 894), 19 (D. 958) and 20 (D. 959). The latter three are among Schubert's final major compositions for solo piano. No. 18 was the last of Schubert's sonatas published during his lifetime and was later described by R. Schumann as the "most perfect in form and conception" of any of Schubert's sonatas. Schubert composed the Sonatas Nos. 19 and 20 during the last months of life, between the spring and autumn of 1828; they were published ten years after his death and are now considered mature masterpieces. The album also includes the Adagio in E major, D. 612. "I chose this movement as a link between the two sonatas D. 537 and 959, because the music sounds like an improvisation to me", Youn explains.

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Youn
Sony Masterworks Sep 2021
CD
$16.98

Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 7 / Douglas

Chandos

$16.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 20% Dec 06, 2024

Barry Douglas's acclaimed survey of Schubert's piano sonatas continues with this programme pairing the Sonata in E flat major, D 568 with the Sonata in G major, D 894. Published posthumously, the E flat major Sonata is a revision and completion of the D flat major Sonata, D 567. The original was written in June 1817, the revision soon afterwards. This sonata stands out in the canon for it's light-hearted, easy-going character in contrast to the more serious nature of the other sonatas. The G major Sonata, the last to be published in Schubert's lifetime, was completed in 1826. The work holds a special place for many pianists, including Imogen Cooper, Sviatoslav Richter, and Paul Lewis; the latter two have declared it their favourite, whilst Robert Schumann described it as 'the most perfect in form and conception' of any of Schubert's sonatas. Douglas completes his programme with two Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs: 'Gretchen am Spinnrade', and 'Wohin?' (from Die schone Mullerin).

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 7 / Douglas
Chandos Dec 2024
CD
~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 / Yasuyo Yano

IBS Classical

$17.99 Oct 02, 2020

From the elated dream to the bitter reality: to provide a proper rendering of Franz Schubert’s music, with its enormous range of expressions including all the intermediate tones, the instrument of choice must be the Fortepiano, if only for its similitude to the pianos used during Schubert’s lifetime. The model used in the present recording is based on the grand piano of the Viennese master Conrad Graf, an instrument that Schubert himself owned. Its six pedals allow Schubert’s music to be played with multifaceted pliancy and depth. The skillful use of all these pedals, which in modern instruments have been reduced to two or three, opens up a multitude of sound facets, similar to doors that open up to a multitude of rooms, each decorated in its own particular way and with its own particular style.

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 / Yasuyo Yano
IBS Classical Oct 2020
CD
$17.99

SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATA D. 959 - MOMENTS MUSICAUX

HARMONIA MUNDI

$22.00 ~~$22.01~~ Save 0% Jan 19, 2024

Under the fingers of Adam Laloum, Schubert's music becomes a journey. The emotions that enrich it are those of a deeply human artistry and the murmur of a voice that still moves us 200 years after falling silent. Adam Laloum's way with Schubert is unique, as his first album (Sonatas D894 and D958) so eloquently demonstrated. A new world awaits us here with the Sonata D959 and the Moments musicaux, whose unassuming title belies the lasting impact they have had on piano lovers.

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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATA D. 959 - MOMENTS MUSICAUX
HARMONIA MUNDI Jan 2024
CD
~~$22.01~~ $22.00

SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D664 769A & 894

HYPERION

$18.49 Apr 01, 2022

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D664 769a & 894 - Stephen Hough - The late G major sonata followed such landmarks as the 'Great' C major symphony and Schubert's last string quartet, and explores similarly expansive terrain; the A major is an earlier, genial work. These frame the brief D769a fragment, which adds to the uniqueness of Stephen Hough's marvellous recital.

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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D664 769A & 894
HYPERION Apr 2022
CD
$18.49

SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D. 959 & 960

WARNER CLASSICS

$17.28 May 13, 2022

Dong Hyek Lim has long wanted to devote an entire album to Schubert. Now he has recorded two of the three epic piano sonatas that Schubert produced in the final year of his short but prolific life: No 20 in A D959 and No 21 in B flat D960. "These sonatas are both deep, dark, late Schubert," says Lim, "but they make a good pairing because they are highly contrasted... In D959 Schubert is more determined and clear about what he wants to do. D960 is more Romantic and fragile. I wouldn't say that Schubert knew he was going to die that year, but I can still feel the depth of these sonatas. Schubert occupies a place between late Beethoven and Romanticism. I feel I must play his music in a Classical way, but I must also let it sing."

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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D. 959 & 960
WARNER CLASSICS May 2022
CD
$17.28

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nox. 17 & 21 / McDermott
Bridge Records Nov 2021
CD
~~$18.99~~ $14.99

Schubert: Piano Sonata, D. 959 - Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Hill

Willowhayne Records - Label

$20.99 Jul 21, 2017

Although these two masterpieces are of differing styles - the Schubert (1828) being a 4 movement sonata in the Viennese classical tradition and the Mussorgsky (1874) a sequence of 15 short sections in a deliberately Russian idiom that rejects western European influence, there are parallels between them. Neither was published until after their composer’s death, the sonata in 1838 and Pictures in 1931, though an edited version by Rimsky-Korsakov had appeared in 1886. Neither work received real appreciation and understanding until the 20th century. Daniel Hill comments: “My criteria for selecting repertoire to record was twofold: firstly, that I would be playing music for which I held a deep respect, passion and conviction; and secondly, that they were pieces for which I felt I may be able to do some justice. “Both works, though largely disparate in nature, represent a kind of journey: in the vivid experience of Mussorgsky’s Pictures, this is somewhat overtly so; Schubert, on the other hand, takes us into a profoundly intimate and, at times, transcendental realm. “My hope in making this disc is that I may have found some of that elusive and precious connection between interpreter and composition.”

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Schubert: Piano Sonata, D. 959 - Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Hill
Willowhayne Records - Label Jul 2017
CD
$20.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 5, 7a, 11 And 12 / Wallisch

Naxos

$19.99 May 01, 2004

This recording contains four of Schubert's 12 piano sonatas that survive in fragmentary form. Notwithstanding their varied states of incompletion, the works are well worth getting to know for their harmonic daring and melodic strength. Beethoven's Appassionata, for instance, casts a strong shadow over the F minor sonata's finale, although its unpredictable modulations and thematic detours are vintage Schubert. Listeners who know the E-flat Sonata D. 568 will be fascinated to encounter this earlier, more difficult D-flat major incarnation, minus the minuet and trio Schubert added later. All three movements of the A-flat D. 557 sonata exist intact and include a delightful Allegro whose opening theme would manifest itself more fully in the familiar "little" A major D. 664 sonata.

Many attempts have been made to complete these works, yet pianist Gottlieb Wallisch performs them as they stand. (Consequently, the F minor sonata's opening Allegro suddenly trails off and vanishes at the start of the recapitulation.) As a Schubert pianist, though, Wallisch is quite complete! He plays the A-flat sonata marginally faster than Kempff and with greater brio all around, and his winged, pliable accounts of the F minor's first three movements contrast to the statuesque Richter versions. But the Russian pianist's long-lined power in the finale surpasses Wallisch's smaller-scaled note-spinning. For the most part, however, Wallisch's solid technique and sound musicianship operate on a high level and benefit from Naxos' top-notch engineering. Wallisch also provides his own excellent, informative booklet notes. Highly recommended for Schubertians of every stripe. [7/6/2004]
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 5, 7a, 11 And 12 / Wallisch
Naxos May 2004
CD
$19.99

Meta - Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 18-21; Lieder / Huangci

Berlin Classics

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Oct 20, 2023

For her 10th anniversary with Berlin Classics, the US pianist Claire Huangci presents herself and her label with a weighty recording project, Schubert's late sonatas D 894, D 958, D 959, and D 960, as well as the Three Piano Pieces D 946 and a selection of songs from Schwanengesang. She accompanies the baritone Thomas E. Bauer in four of the songs and plays two in an arrangement by Franz Liszt. To be heard in a box with three albums under the title META.

META stands for the importance of Schubert's music in Claire Huangci's personal and musical life. Schubert's compositions, which she has played since her earliest youth, "show my development, that reflects unconscious emotions," as she writes in the booklet. Schubert's music is "the music I would like to take with me to a desert island...Schubert has accompanied me through all times", especially the late sonatas, which are at the center of the META box.

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Meta - Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 18-21; Lieder / Huangci
Berlin Classics Oct 2023
CD
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, Op. 78, D. 894 & 3

Ars Produktion

SACD

$21.99 Jan 29, 2016

Pianist Elena Margolina enjoyed a highly distinguished musical education, graduating with a piano concert diploma from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and, summa cum laude, from the University of Music in Detmold in 1996. She has made numerous recordings for radio, television and also several CD recordings. On her latest recording she plays three piano pieces and a sonata by Franz Schubert.

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Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, Op. 78, D. 894 & 3
Ars Produktion Jan 2016
SACD
$21.99

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959 - Schumann:

Genuin

$20.99 Nov 02, 2018

Schumann and Schubert's music is never simply cheerful: their dark sides attack us suddenly, unexpectedly, either like a storm or by stealthily creeping up on us. Natalia Ehwald has selected two such works for the follow-up release to the highly acclaimed GENUIN production Fantasias for Piano: Schubert's late Sonata in A major and Schumann's early, "sad" Humoresque, op. 20. Ehwald does not try to smooth out anything; she never overlooks the roughness of the music but instead becomes involved, creating associations and thereby achieving a pianism of great suggestive power. This album is a lovely new discovery of two major works!

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Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959 - Schumann:
Genuin Nov 2018
CD
$20.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 1, 8 And 15 / Gottlieb Wallisch

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Oct 30, 2007

SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas: No. 1 in E, D 157 ; No. 8 in f?, D 571/D 570/D 604 ; No. 15 in C, D 840 “Reliquie.” Fragments: in c?, D 655; in e, D 769a • Gottlieb Wallisch (pn) • NAXOS 8.570118 (72:23)

The young Viennese pianist Gottlieb Wallisch confirms the favorable impression he made on an earlier set of Schubert’s fragments and unfinished piano sonatas, reviewed in Fanfare 30:1 last year. The works on the present CD include sketches, fragments, and unfinished works from 1815–25, and once again, Wallisch enhances his performances with insightful and illuminating notes. He does not offer any “completions” of these fragments, as many pianists have attempted, but simply stops playing when the music breaks off. There is no completely satisfying explanation of why Schubert left so many of the piano sonatas unfinished, but Wallisch’s concluding words offer some consolation: “These fragmentary works very often breathe a special mysterious poetry. They provide a fuller view of Schubert’s creative process and musical thinking and at the same time bring to life for us his journey and quest.” Nowhere are these words better exemplified than in Wallisch’s haunting performance of the fragmentary first movement of the F? Minor Sonata, D 571.

The so-called “Reliquie” (all the unfinished works are “relics,” after all) is the most complete, as well as the most important of this group of works. Schubert finished the first two movements and the Trio section of the Menuetto and Trio, but left the Menuetto and the final Rondo incomplete. The loss is even more significant because, as Wallisch notes, this sonata inaugurated a new creative stage with a return to sonata-writing after a two-year pause. Schubert was, according to one of his letters, preparing through his instrumental compositions to pave the way for “great symphonies,” and the “Reliquie” exemplifies this ambition to a great extent. Quoting Wallisch’s notes again, “the piano-writing is laid out very orchestrally, and the individual sections and formal structures take on . . . symphonic dimensions.” Wallisch’s interpretation does full justice to the grandeur of Schubert’s vision; it is as eloquent as the performance by the fine Finnish pianist Ralf Gothoni, who made a magnificent recording of the “Reliquie” many years ago on the Ondine label (now unfortunately out of print).

Wallisch, who was a finalist in both the Queen Elisabeth and Clara Haskil competitions, is an accomplished and sensitive Schubert-player. The warmth in his playing complements Schubert’s poignant and expressive writing, while his sparkling touch brings lightness and gracefulness to livelier movements. Recorded in England in 2005, the piano sound is rich and real.

There is no mention of a continuation of the sonata cycle, but I urge Schubert-lovers to keep an eye out for future recordings as Wallisch approaches the great sonatas of Schubert’s maturity.

FANFARE: Susan Kagan

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 1, 8 And 15 / Gottlieb Wallisch
Naxos Oct 2007
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D 784, D 664, D 845 / Elena Margolina

Ars Produktion

SACD

$21.99 Mar 19, 2021

Elena Margolina's Schubert interpretations are characterized by sensitive playing, which enables the pianist to make audible the shades that are so immensely important in these works. The pieces are poignant in the truest sense of the word and take hold of the listener. Pianist Elena Margolina enjoyed a highly distinguished musical education, graduating with a piano concert diploma from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and, summa cum laude, from the University of Music in Detmold in 1996. Elena Margolina has won prizes at renowned piano and chamber music competitions, including First Prize at the Fifth International Schubert Piano Competition in Dortmund in 1995. She has taught at the University of Music, Media and Drama in Hanover and at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and offers master classes world-wide, including in Germany, Italy, South Korea, Canada, China, Albania, Russia, the Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom. In 2014 Elena Margolina joined the faculty of the University of Music in Detmold as professor of piano.

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas D 784, D 664, D 845 / Elena Margolina
Ars Produktion Mar 2021
SACD
$21.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D. 959 And D. 960 / Hans-Jurg Strub [2 SACDs]

Ars Produktion

SACD

$32.99 Sep 18, 2020

A few weeks before Schubert's death in November 1828, the last two piano sonatas, A major D 959 and B flat major D 960, were written, which together with the C minor Sonata D 958 belong to the "Sonata Triad" - which can probably be called the crowning achievement of his piano work. Schubert's first draft shows how the thirty-one-year-old worked on these works simultaneously; also, the counting of B flat major as Sonata No. 3 is by Schubert's hand. The sonatas are thus cyclically arranged by the composer and have many compositional similarities. Schubert dedicated this triad to his famous contemporary, the virtuoso pianist and Mozart student Johann Nepomuk Hummel. However, it was not published until 1839 - 11 years after Schubert's death, by which time Hummel had already passed away, and so the dedication was transferred to Robert Schumann by the publisher Diabelli & Co. While the Impromptus or Moments musicaux were always very popular, the sonatas led a shadowy existence for a long time. In both sonatas we experience a wealth of different characters and contrasting emotions. The arc of tension leads from the greatest brightness to the deepest darkness, from powerful verve and chromatic turmoil in the Allegro of the A major Sonata to cantabile immersion and tenderness in the Molto moderato of B flat major. In the slow movements - the F minor Andantino in A major as well as the Andante sostenuto in C sharp minor in B flat major - a shattering sadness seizes us - indeed we experience deepest resignation and mental abyss. The wanderer Schubert is drawn to the abysmal.

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas D. 959 And D. 960 / Hans-Jurg Strub [2 SACDs]
Ars Produktion Sep 2020
SACD
$32.99

SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D. 537 568 & 664

HARMONIA MUNDI

$18.33 Oct 28, 2022

Paul Lewis completes his exploration of Schubert's sonatas, begun almost twenty years ago, with three early masterpieces. The Sonatas D.537 and D.568 display the daring and freshness of their youthful creator, while with D.664, dazzling in it's artless charm, he already opens a window towards new musical horizons.

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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS D. 537 568 & 664
HARMONIA MUNDI Oct 2022
CD
$18.33

SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS NOS. 16 & 17 IMPROMPTU N 2

ALTO

$11.49 Mar 06, 2020

Richter's interpretations in these years had an elemental power, unselfconscious abandon that was refined and tempered in later life. These entirely unedited performances, given over more than three decades from the mid 1950s to late 1980s, feel not only live but somehow extraordinarily real. Not that Richter ever gives the impression of playing for the microphone, and his vision of musical structures remains constant whether in the studio or concert-hall.... The Schubert D major Sonata (studio recording 1956) is a tower of inner strength

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SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS NOS. 16 & 17 IMPROMPTU N 2
ALTO Mar 2020
CD
$11.49

Schubert: Variations

Analekta

$20.99 Nov 21, 2025

Volume 11 of Mathieu Gaudet's complete Schubert piano sonatas cycle brings us the fascinating second book of Impromptus D. 935, including the immortal Theme and Variation in B flat major. The youthful Sonata no. 2 in C major D. 279 and the « Noble » Waltzes D. 969 round up this spectacular album, full of singing melodies, contrasting atmospheres and romantic drama.

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Schubert: Variations
Analekta Nov 2025
CD
$20.99

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