Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D959

“These performances were recorded live at a Queen Elizabeth Hall recital given in 2008. Free from the confines of the studio, Cooper rises to the occasion with performances that show a courageous advance on her already distinguished work. This is true, most strikingly, in the great penultimate A major Sonata, D959. ...few more deeply charged or felt performances now exist on record. Cooper wrings every expressive ounce from the massive opening Allegro and the result is movingly personal rather than overbearing or idiosyncratic. Time and again she makes you sense the dark undertow beneath Schubert's outward geniality, the pain as well as the fullness of his tragically brief life. ...nothing is taken for granted and every musical shadow, whether passing or engulfing, is acutely registered.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009

“the piano could not be more naturally captured, nor the feeling of live music-making conveyed to the listener. She displays a very special feeling for the composer's lyricism, and the warm colouring and fine shading of timbre are as pleasing to the ear as the many subtle nuances of phrasing, and her bold sonority at higher dynamic levels is particularly satisfying.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The range of colour, the subtle details, the singing line, the freedom of tempo within the driving momentum, the haunting and haunted beauty, are greater than ever. A joy.” Sunday Times, 10th May 2009 ****

“You only have to hear the slow movement of the great A Major Sonata D959 to appreciate that Cooper has the capacity to make the piano sing, in this instance with sighs of melancholy...Cooper has said that, after a career-long association with Schubert, his music's message has become much more direct for her. These discs show how eloquently she can convey that message to us.” The Telegraph, 30th April 2009 *****

“This penultimate Sonata is Beethovenian in its ferocity yet uniquely Schubertian in its sense of desolation, most notably in the almost intolerable second movement. It is performed by Helmchen with a naturalness which does justice to both its subtleties and stark contrasts. The Moments musicaux may be thought to play themselves, but this account of them is equally compelling and fresh.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 *****

“…such is the strength and poetic commitment of Helmchen's playing that he already makes comparison irrelevant. And if I was to single out one awe-inspiring moment it would be the Andantino from the Sonata, naturally paced, enviably poised and focused with a stealthy approach to the central elemental uproar that suggests a young pianist of rare maturity and vision.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“Here is musical gold indeed. Martin Helmchen is a 27-year-old German pianist who won the Clara Haskil Competition in 2001 and whose playing in its mastery and unadorned quality has much in common with that great artist. Memorable recordings of Schubert's D959 Sonata and the six Moments musicaux are hardly thin on the ground yet such is the strength and poetic commitment of Helmchen's playing that he already makes comparison irrelevant. And if one was to single out one awe-inspiring moment it would be the Andantino from the Sonata, naturally paced, enviably poised and focused with a stealthy approach to the central elemental uproar that suggests a young pianist of rare maturity and vision.
All possible longueur, too, in the finale is banished in playing that makes for heavenly rather than interminable length. Again, the last of the Moments musicaux, an epic in miniature, is given with an unforgettable inwardness and quite without recourse to sub-normal timing or false sophistication. Just occasionally you could say that Helmchen's tempi are insufficiently integrated with a tendency to relax into lyricism and accelerate into drama. But given his overall command this is little more than a spot on the sun.
Pentatone's sound is both clear and natural.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is a welcome separating of Andsnes's last Schubert sonatas from their couplings with Bostridge's way with some Lieder. These are noble accounts, but limited in an intensely competitive field.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ***

“Brendel believes Schubert is 'mysteriously episodic', but doesn’t play him that way. Architecture is re-created by scanning ahead… and by binding movements together through tempi that relate to one another. Weaknesses fall by the wayside. Not, though, the melancholic songfulness that is an indisputable part of Schubert. It is heard in, say, the B major Trio or the slow movement of D960, but shorn of the lachrymose bleating that some pianists think necessary.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2006

“He is a thoughtful, restrained interpreter who keeps textures transparent. He tends to underplay the rhetoric even in the A major Sonata...Equally, the B flat Sonata unfolds without unnecessary promptings; every detail flows naturally from the last, and the flexibility of the tempi, often anticipating a modulation with a ritardando, is never overdone.” The Guardian, 18th April 2003 ****

“Perahia offers deep insights into all three works” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009

“You'll pick up Perahia to hear Schubert, and I promise you there's no lack of passion or emotional depth here, despite Perahia's relatively understated approach...There's a softly-spoken integrity here...as a pianist he's simply one of the best singers.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 1st July 2003