
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
1:00 AM 11th January 2025
arts
Review
Classical Music: Schubert Piano Works, Vol. 7
Schubert Piano Works, Vol. 7
Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, D 568; Piano Sonata in G Major, D 894 'Fantasy-Sonata'; Gretchen am Spinnrade, D118 (arr. Liszt); Wohin? D795 (arr. Liszt)
Barry Douglas, piano.
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Barry Douglas continues his survey of Schubert’s piano sonatas with this seventh volume that pairs 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.
Playing a Steinway Model D (578 346) concert grand, he captures the spirit of the sonatas, delivering each one’s character with meticulous dynamics, lyricality, and vitality. He begins this volume with a convincing performance of D568, which he splendidly articulates, ensuring the essence of all movements is alluring, especially the opening of the last, which is beguilingly played.
The G major sonata, the last to be published in Schubert’s lifetime, was completed in 1826, and Robert Schumann described it as "the most perfect in form and conception" of any of Schubert’s sonatas.
Douglas creates the space in which to portray the drama through the G Major sonata’s different moods in a compelling performance that has colour and texture, and where the meditative and brooding elements are expressively and sensitively communicated.
The sonata’s improvisatory traits are felt, and as Brian Newbould points out in his excellent notes, the beginning reminds of the opening of Beethoven’s
Fourth Piano Concerto, also in G major; Newbould also points out Schubert's use of fff markings.
Douglas plays the delightfully brisk concluding movement, Allegretto, with rhythmic verve, before rounding off his recital with two Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs:
Gretchen am Spinnrade and
Wohin? (from
Die schöne Müllerin), that cements his understanding of Schubert in a cycle that has consistently proved to show Douglas’s virtuosity and passion.