Franz Schubert

[DavidW]

The opening Allegro moderato is indeed the D 571.

There are only a dozen recordings of that fragment on Idagio fyi.

[Karl Henning]

Did you try Alfred Brendel's?

I'm a big fan.

[Spotted Horses]

As a newcomer to most of the piano sonatas, I have a q. for the Schubert mavens among us. I've been listening to (and thoroughly enjoying) Paul Badura-Skoda's recording of the sonatas. I found myself wanting to do some comparative listening, and have found myself immediately stymied. I realize that the beginning of an answer may perhaps be found in the excellent notes to the PBS set, but this week, I've been such a good lad and doing a lot of composing of my own, so pardon my laziness in seeking out the collective wisdom. The nature of the stymie is this: I was listening to what PBS lists as the sonata # 8 in f# minor, and I was curious to hear Ingrid Haebler's take on the same material. However, perusing the Haebler set, I find no  sonata in f# minor. There are early sonatas in B and A. Any enlightenment is appreciated.

PBS's notes are indeed enlightening, and TLDR. There is a nice series of wikipedia pages with brief descriptions of the various sonatas, just search by D number, for instance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_in_F-sharp_minor,_D_571_(Schubert)

and a general page on piano music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solo_piano_compositions_by_Franz_Schubert

[Karl Henning]

There are only a dozen recordings of that fragment on Idagio fyi.

Thanks. Makes sense, esp. in light of the observation. by @Spotted Horses

[Karl Henning]

I see; would this happen to be PBS's original scholarship, the idea of piecing these fragments all together? Maybe you can answer that later when you're done with the pieces you're working on and can take a look at the booklet

As @Spotted Horses notes, TLDR, so I don't know if PBS claims it for his own. He notes that Sch. stopped writing the D.571 when he arrived at where we expect the recapitulation. (PBS realizes a recap here.) PBS feels there is no doubt that the Andante, D. 604 (although published on its own—being complete itself, after all) was to be the second mvt of this Sonata, opening as it does with a cadence in f# minor, which in the day would have been too eccentric for an independent piece in A. Offhand, I'd say it does read in a way that suggests work of PBS's own

[AnotherSpin]

I'm a big fan.

I have listened for many years to his Beethoven (my first integral set of many to follow), Mozart, etc. But relatively recently I discovered his performances from various years of the Schubert sonatas. It amazed me.

[Karl Henning]

I have listened for many years to his Beethoven (my first integral set of many to follow), Mozart, etc. But relatively recently I discovered his performances from various years of the Schubert sonatas. It amazed me.

I also very much enjoy his Artist Choice compilation of Liszt.

[JBS]

I have listened for many years to his Beethoven (my first integral set of many to follow), Mozart, etc. But relatively recently I discovered his performances from various years of the Schubert sonatas. It amazed me.

Almost everything Brendel picked for that Artist's Choice series is good, and usually better than his studio versions. The Schubert sonatas from that series is one of my favorite Schubert CDs.

[Spotted Horses]

Did you try Alfred Brendel's?

I have to admit I haven't listened to Brendel, although I have the recordings on my shelves. I should.

[Florestan]

I have to admit I haven't listened to Brendel, although I have the recordings on my shelves. I should.

Make haste. Brendel is a desert-island Schubertian.

[vers la flamme]

Make haste. Brendel is a desert-island Schubertian.

Indeed! I don't know what it is, but there is something very special about his recordings of Schubert. For some reason I put him in a separate category from the rest of the Schubertian pianists I like; he seems to bring more directness to Schubert's music where some others seem to emphasize more of the dreaminess of the music. He does omit repeats, which could be a pro or a con for the listener. I don't mind, though sometimes I miss them in the later sonatas when I'm after a more immersive experience, for lack of a better term. (Sorry for all the vague terminology, I never got to be any good at talking about music, even after all these years here )

[Florestan]

For a quite different take on the sonatas than the usual ones, I recommend this set:



Leisurely, unhurried, relaxed, Barenboim takes time to smell all the roses in the garden.

[BWV 1080]

Thought this was a nice deconstruction of Schubert, from one of my favorite youtube channels, showing how these composers worked from the same set of building blocks (in this case the romanesca)

[Maestro267]

Are there any significant gems among the string quartets preceding the Last Four?

[Jo498]

I think the best early one is the g minor D 173. They are mostly very early, written by the teenaged Schubert even before most of the early symphonies. They are an odd, often unmitigated mix between naive and experimental.
The most popular by some margin seems to be the Eb major D 87 and it's charming but prefer the g minor and probably a few others. (Admittedly, I don't know all of them very well although I have heard them all several times.)

[Mandryka]

Listening to Trudelies Leonhardt's Schubert.

If it weren't for the killer fact that she plays with a strict pulse it would be a really interesting f minor op 142 for me, because of the tempo and the textures she reveals. Lovely timbres in the piano in the low notes too. But there we are, we have what we have, she's a metronome.

[Scion7]

Karl, you may wish to search out these 1978/1980 performances, which are available on CD (the links are reasonable LP transfers):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SCHUBERT+-+J%C3%B6rg+Ewald+D%C3%A4hler

from Gramophone's review of D.959 & D.960, by Melwyn Tan:

Comparison with Dahler (Claves/Pinnacle) in the last, great B flat Sonata reveals the Swiss player, with his slower tempos, as the more introspective of the two. Always Dahler seems anxious to remind us of Schubert's confession: ''Somehow I feel that I no longer belong to this world''—and nowhere more so than in the intimacies of the first movement's development section (and, I must add, in those three heart-rending C sharp minor chords, so casually dismissed by Tan, that lead into it).

I have the Tan performance on CD. If you can get past the awful [and embarrassing purchase at the counter with several glances at me by the clerk back in 1990] cover, the music has its moments.

[Scion7]

Oh, yes, me finds the Nonesuch LP in the bins ... long ago ... the precious performance ... re-issued 2X on CD ...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SCHUBERT+-+D.958+-+Richard+Goode

[lordlance]

An absolute knockout Schubert 8 from a completely unexpected source:




Movement I
Movement II

[Daverz]

An absolute knockout Schubert 8 from a completely unexpected source:




Movement I
Movement II

I was just listening to the gorgeous Jochum recording with Boston last night.

This Britten recording is in the "Britten the Performer" box, so looking forward to listening to it later.