Schubert Piano Recordings

[Jo498]

I assumed that there was overlap with the older set (I was above referring to the 80s/90s Teldec recordings), or did she really re-record all of the 7? sonatas she had done earlier? It seems like that but I not quite sure from the minimal information on the backcover. In any case there is another box with these older recordings (last 5 + D 568 + 664) + Trout, Impromptus...

[Florestan]

The Teldec set stroke me as uncompromisingly grim and dour --- and approach that imo doesn't suit Schubert at all. 

[George]

I assumed that there was overlap with the older set (I was above referring to the 80s/90s Teldec recordings), or did she really re-record all of the 7? sonatas she had done earlier? It seems like that but I not quite sure from the minimal information on the backcover. In any case there is another box with these older recordings (last 5 + D 568 + 664) + Trout, Impromptus...

From a Gramophone review of Leonskaja's Complete Schubert Sonata set on Warner:

"No question about it, Leonskaja's Schubert on Warner (her Schubert recordings for Teldec are completely different) should provide you with a lifetime's worth of musical nourishment, and the sound, now as before, is superb."

I confirmed this morning that they are different recordings using a download source and Spotify (the timings are different.)

[Atriod]

On the heels of a recent Hurwitz "Random Reviews From the Overflow Room" Schubert video where he reviewed some Uchida disc and called here fussy I pulled out an Uchida SACD that was in my to hear queue (D568, D780). It was as I remembered from her complete box; like Alfred Brendel fussy is the diplomatic term or as I read somewhere else what sticks in my head more, they are both "the accountant's Schubert." I hear no sweep, romantic ardor, or the grand picture from either of them minus some of the Impromptus that Brendel is very good in.

I went back to as Hurwitz calls it "spot checking" Daniel Ben-Pienaar and he is only average in the late sonatas but the rest of the cycle is absolutely superb. I greatly prefer Pienaar's Schubert cycle to the Beethoven, the Schubert cycle has none of the jitteriness, overtly nonsensical interventions (the Schubert cycle still has his characteristics, just not as extreme), or even the sound of him just barely being capable of playing the music. He is slightly worse than Lucchesini in some of the sonatas and just as good as Paul Badura-Skoda's RCA cycle (not the Astree/Arcana PI cycle which is considerably worse than PBS' PI Beethoven) or Kempff. All that Schubert then put me in the mood to hear Bozhanov in D960, one of the more unusual but still highly enjoyable D960s that I don't listen to often but I really should.

[Todd]

I hear no sweep, romantic ardor, or the grand picture from either of them minus some of the Impromptus that Brendel is very good in.

Odd to see Brendel's D959 be lumped in with fussy or accountant-like playing.  Not sure what "the accountant's Schubert" means, but I am sure it is meant to be clever.

[Atriod]

but I am sure it is meant to be clever.

Indeed, reads like something you would have written.

[Mandryka]

When Uchida was recording Schubert she gave a series of maybe four concerts here with Schubert and Schoenberg. I went to all of them and really didn't much enjoy the Schubert, which I felt was uninvolving and somehow dry. At the time I was into Russian Schubert Richter, Yudina and Sofronitsky style, so you can imagine the shock of Uchida.

Subsequently I got to know her agent at Philips slightly and I remember he commented that he thought that if she had a fault generally, it was that she is always very refined, very poised.

By coincidence (given that she's been mentioned here today) yesterday I listened to how she plays the andantino of D959. My thought was a more classical conception could be really interesting in that movement because of the problem of making the central section, the outburst, cohere with the outer sections. There was some really imaginative playing in the final part of the triptych.

In fact, I really was glad to have heard her in that movement  - I wouldn't describe what she did there as "fussy" - not if that means that there were unnatural and intrusive embellishments. I'm not sure she makes the music in the andantino cohere - but the world's a little better a place because the recording exists, IMO.

[Todd]

Indeed, reads like something you would have written.

Very sharp.

[Holden]

Subsequently I got to know her agent at Philips slightly and I remember he commented that he thought that if she had a fault generally, it was that she is always very refined, very poised.

Which is why I didn't really get into her highly touted Mozart sonata cycle. I prefer someone with a bit of ardour like Clara Wurtz or Lili Kraus.

[Atriod]

Very sharp.

Thanks.

Which is why I didn't really get into her highly touted Mozart sonata cycle. I prefer someone with a bit of ardour like Clara Wurtz or Lili Kraus.

Agreed, though for me the two are PBS Astree and Pires Denon/Brilliant Classics. My desert island Uchida disc I wouldn't want to be without. She was also my introduction to the Debussy Etudes which are still excellent but I have around a half dozen others I prefer.

[Madiel]

I like Uchida's Mozart on Phillips. I found I did not like her Schubert set when I tried it. There were passages that were great, but then there would be moments where she would pull the music out of shape to make a "moment" out of it. That's the best way I can describe it. It felt forced rather than musical.

[Que]

[...]Paul Badura-Skoda's RCA cycle (not the Astree/Arcana PI cycle which is considerably worse than PBS' PI Beethoven) [...]

It's a pity about PBS' Astrée (ARCANA) cycle, but true. Fortunately there is an excellent set performed on fortepiano by Jan Vermeulen (ET'CETERA) .