Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D845

Iconic Deutsche Grammophon pianist and celebrated Schubert interpreter Maria João Pires returns to further explore the music of the quintessential romantic composer; deepening a musical relationship that has captivated critics and public alike throughout her career. The Portugese pianist has not recorded either of these sonatas for DG before and this recording of the brooding and expansive Sonata no.16 in A minor is her first for any label.

Both her DG debut recital and the acclaimed 1997 album, Voyage Magnifique, revealed Maria João Pires's unique empathy with the clarity of gesture and melodic line in the solo music of Schubert and this new album, combining the rarely heard Sonata No.16 with one of the composer’s best-loved late works, adds to her acclaimed discography of the composer.

A juxtaposition of the first and second Grande Sonates for pianoforte of 1825, one a melancholic, intimate effusion that does not smile; the other, brimming with frothy joy close to a stylised Tyrolienne, then a refined Ländler whose emotional invention heralds Bruckner, followed by a moderato as light as it is timeless in its innocent, inalterable gaiety. A portrait such as only Richter the painter knew how to compose.

June 14, 1956 (D 850), consists of previously released material by PRAGA PR254031 (P) 1994, CDM 78726/7 (P) 1993 agreed by Svjatoslav Richter in Paris in 1993.

Paul Lewis is today regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Having won the most coveted prizes of the great classical institutions for both his concert career and his recordings on harmonia mundi (Diapason d’Or of the year 2002, 25th Premio Internationale Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and three Gramophone Awards including Recording of the Year in 2008), he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southampton in 2009. He is also the first pianist in the history of the BBC Proms to have played the complete Beethoven concertos in a single season (2010).

He appears as a guest in the most prestigious concert halls and with the foremost orchestras and enjoys a privileged relationship with the Wigmore Hall, where he has performed more than 50 times. Early in 2011, Paul Lewis embarked on a two-year concert tour devoted to the works written by Schubert in the last six years of his life. When this is completed, he will have played in London, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Melbourne, Rotterdam, Bologna, Florence and at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Wonderful performances of Schubert and Beethoven by one of the most highly regarded pianists of the 20th century. The Schubert minatures were recorded at the legendary Sofia concert of 1958 and the sonata and bagatelles are studio recordings.

'When he is at his best he plays more beautifully than any of us,' Alfred Brendel told William Steinberg, and described Kempff as 'an Aeolian harp, ever ready to respond to whatever interesting wind blew his way'. Brendel chose Kempff's 1953 Decca recording of Schubert's A minor Sonata, D.845, for inclusion in Philips' monumental 'Great Pianists of the 20th Century' series. The B flat Sonata was recorded three years earlier and has never previously been published on CD. In contrast with today's bountiful D. 960 discography, Schubert's last sonata was a relative rarity on disc when this recording first appeared, and it met with critical enthusiasm. 'Out of many lovely things in (the) first movement,' wrote the late and long-time Gramophone critic Alec Robertson, 'I will single out Kempff's playing of the second tune (F sharp minor) in which he achieves a perfect balance between the tenor and treble registers, and his instinctive feeling for the magical music hovering between D minor and B flat major, which proceeds the recapitulation - one of the supreme things in the whole of piano literature.'

In the 1000th issue of Gramophone (December 2005) the magazine asked its panel of reviewers to choose a single artist they'd like to hear perform just for them. Ivan March chose Wilhelm Kempff, and in particular, this 1950 Decca recording of Schubert's B flat sonata: 'Long ago, in my teens, I discovered the inspirational playing of Wilhelm Kempff. It is he I would invite to my command performance and it is Schubert I would ask him to play - the last, wonderful Sonata in B flat, for me the peak of 19th-century piano music. I heard it first on a Decca mono LP, elysian in his hands. But that early pressing had an irritating background swish. I tried to replace it but it appeared that all copies carried the same fault; it was some time before I secured a perfect pressing. Many years later I had afternoon tea with the illustrious Alec Robertson, whose enthusiastic review in The Gramophone had drawn me to the record. I gently took him to task about not mentioning the swish in his review. His eyes twinkled. "Ivan," he said, "the playing was so beautiful that I didn't hear the swish".'

Imogen Cooper returns to AVIE with the first in a series of 3 double CDs, recorded live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, exploring the late piano music of Schubert written between 1823 and 1828. The first volume includes the A minor Sonata D845, the D major Sonata D850 and the A major Sonata D959.

Imogen says: “I’m not afraid of being described as a Schubert specialist,” even though her active repertoire ranges from Bach to Thomas Adès. “He has taken up a lot of my waking time for more than 30 years. In fact, you could say that his songs and his piano music have sometimes been close to an obsession for me.” It is more than 20 years since Cooper made a live and recorded survey of all the piano music Schubert composed from early 1823 until his death in 1828 at the age of 31. “One of the reasons I’ve taken it all up again is that I feel it ten times more strongly than I did 20 years ago: the message has become more direct to me. Schubert has become even more necessary to my well-being, and I sense strongly that he is important for an audience’s well-being too.

Imogen Cooper has established a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the classical repertoire. Having spent several years at the Paris Conservatoire in her teens, Cooper went to Vienna to study with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus and the pianist often seen as her mentor, Alfred Brendel. She has appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle among many others.

“She is an outstanding artist, one of the finest pianists now playing.” Daily Telegraph

Wilhelm Kempff confirms his unique status in his Schwetzinger piano recital of 1962. The repertoire selected for this recital features miniatures of Jean-Philippe Rameau and François Couperin which show Kempff as the sonic acrobat and mystic colorist, equal to the challenges of the French clavicenists.

Michelangelo Carbonara is one of the most interesting and talented young Italian pianists. A student of the famous Imola Piano School he benefited from the advice of such luminaries as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleischer, Alicia de Larrocha, Menahem Pressler and Aldo Ciccolini. His recordings of the complete piano music of Ravel, Scarlatti Sonatas and piano music by Nino Rota brought him great critical acclaim in the international press.

This CD for Piano Classics presents him in music very close to his heart, the piano sonatas by Franz Schubert (he is prize winner of the Schubert International Piano Competition in Dortmund), from the early joyful sonata in E major, through the lyrical A major D664 to the grim A minor sonata D845.

On his new album, Matthias Kirschnereit displays a fine sense of the nuances and rough contrasts required to follow in Schubert’s footsteps.