Schubert, Franz - Sonatas & Impromptus - Schiff, András

In the latest chapter of András Schiff's ongoing documentary on the music of Franz Schubert, the great pianist plays Four Impromptus, D 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert's all too short life: Three Pieces, D 946 (“impromptus in all but name,” as Misha Donat notes in the CD booklet), Sonata in C minor, D 958, and Sonata in A major, D 959. Schiff once again chooses to use his fortepiano, built by Franz Brodmann in Vienna around 1820. “It suits me perfectly for Schubert’s keyboard works,” he has said. There is something traditionally Viennese about its tone color, its delicate softness, its melancholic cantabile. Critics have been unanimous in their praise of Schiff’s interpretations: "I cannot imagine anyone of his caliber who has mastered the fortepiano as well as the modern piano and demonstrated such excellence on both," wrote Stephen Plaistow in his Editor's Choice review in Gramophone magazine. "In Schubert, Schiff has a claim to be considered the sovereign among contemporary performers, taking Schubert's reading and interpretation into areas that others have not fully explored."