Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D major, D850

Rising star Alice Sara Ott’s new recording documents her summer 2012 rite of passage debut at the prestigious White Nights Festival.

Alice Sara Ott’s challenging programme centers upon Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Her virtuosic technique and youthful brilliance deliver the majesty, colours and spontaneity that this music requires. The power, passion and beauty which Alice Sara brings to Schubert’s thrilling Sonata No. 17 is insightful and memorable.

Her stellar career coincides with the enthusiastic international acclaim her Deutsche Grammophon recordings and performances garner. As the Guardian writes: “... it was good to hear live the qualities that shine through on Ott’s recordings – the crystalline tone and prodigious range of colour, the perfectly even, crisp technique ...”

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 has just emerged from a vast Beethoven project: the complete sonatas and piano concertos, greeted all over the world as a landmark and completed in 2011 by the 'Diabelli Variations' – and now he returns to Franz Schubert, the other key focus of his concert career, the other pillar of his discography.

In this double album, three late sonatas are accompanied by two sets of short pieces brimming with inventiveness, the ' Impromptus' and 'Klavierstücke'.

“there were magical moments too, when Lewis's playing touched the sublime. His own Schubert odyssey is not to be missed by anybody who appreciates pianism of the highest caliber.” Barry Millington, London Evening Standard, concert review

Shai Wosner’s second release for ONYX after his critically acclaimed Brahms and Schoenberg debut disc (ONYX4055) of 2010. For his all Schubert programme Wosner has chosen two late sonatas. The monumental but unfinished two-movement torso D840, and the genial D850 written at a time in the composers life when he was without money, out of love, and involved with rows with his publishers. This work was one of the few sonatas to be published during his lifetime, and finally he earned 300 florins. Schumann described this sonata as ‘impetuous, overflowing’ It is one of Schubert’s happiest works, in start contrast to the stark and monolithic D840.

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

Henri Bonamy is fast becoming one of the most ‘in demand’ young talents of his generation, on the concert platform today. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire he has played extensively throughout Europe and the Far East, in concerto and solo performances. He is a regular chamber music recitalist and his performing partners include Julia Fischer, Marina Chiche and Wen-Sinn Yang.

“This repertoire speaks to me in such a profound way.It strikes a chord in me in a way that no other music does.” Leif Ove Andsnes

Pianist Valery Afanassiev - renowned for his strikingly individual and deeply introspective interpretations of the music of Franz Schubert - has paired two often extrovert works by the composer: the set of six Moments Musicaux and the Sonata in D major, D850. Recorded in September 2010 at the Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano, this is ECM’s second Schubert recording by the Moscow-born pianist.

Composed from 1823 to 1827, the year before the composer’s premature death, the Moments Musicaux brim with song and dance, as well as Schubert’s characteristic mood swings from major to minor, from light to dark. The Sonata D850, written in 1825, is one of Schubert’s most ebullient piano sonatas - with yodelling-like melodies, simulated horn calls and strongly syncopated rhythms - but like so many works by this composer, there are passages with an air of nostalgia and emotional ambiguity.

Valery Afanassiev previously released on ECM New Series a live recording of Schubert’s final Sonata (in B flat major, D. 960) performed at the 1986 Lockenhaus Festival that has become a connoisseur’s favourite (4627072).

A pupil of Emil Gilels at the Moscow Conservatory, Afanassiev’s international career took off after he won the 1972 Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Brussels. His recordings feature music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mussorgsky and Chopin, as well as Schubert. His chamber music partners have included Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky. He also has a second career as a writer - of novels and plays - and has written intriguing liner notes for this album that mark him out as a renaissance man.

This collection is now available again and at a budget price. Included are Schubert’s Piano Sonatas Nos 16 and 17, as well as Schumann’s 3 Novelletten Op.21, Fantasiestücke Op.12, Humoreske in B flat major Op.20. These recordings were made from 1956-1960.