That's easy..

1. Piano Sonata 21 in B-flat Major, D.960

- This is Schubert at his most sublime. Considered as one of the greatest piano works, D.960 is transcedental, divine and breathtaking.

There are so many recordings of this great work. I consider Horowitz the one to beat, with Curzon, Yudina, Haskill, Uchida, Lupu, Brendel and Richter following him.


2. Fantasie in C-major ''Wanderer'', D.760

- Schubert himself said ''the devil may play it!'' because he can't play it properly. The 2nd movement of this piece is one of the most virtuosic and dramatic in piano literature. Liszt was enamored and fascinated with Wanderer Fantasy. It influenced his thematic development and he transcribed it for piano with orchestra.

Richter is the devil! Listen to his Wanderer in YouTube. It's demonic.

3. Impromptus D.899

- Beautiful piano miniatures. I consider tha third one in G major, my favorite.

Andras Schiff recorded the two sets, and he had done an admirable job.

4. Fantasie in F-minor in Piano Four Hands, D.940

- The greatest of Schubert's piano duets! This piece is the pinnacle of the genre. Military March no. 1, might be Schubert's most popular, but the Fantasy is thousands time greater. What pathos and tragedy! The 1st movement is so sad and lovely.

Britten and Richter is a good choice. But, I prefer the ones with Kissen and Levine


5. Piano Sonata 14 in A minor, D.784

The turning point of Schubert's piano sonatas. It's magical and dreamy.

Get the Kempff's recording.


6. Impromptus, D.934

Though not as popular as the first, Impromptus is just as good. The 3rd one, with Themes and Variations is my favorite.

Andras Schiff can't be beat.

7. Any Liszt' transcription of Schubert's Lieder

- Where do I start? Erlkönig, Gretchen am Spinnrade, Die Forelle etc. They are masterpieces of their own right.

Regarding Brendel. Brendel is one of the best regarded Schubertian, but I won't call him the best. There are many good pianists that can beat Brendel's recording of Schubert (like Horowitz, Curzon). The thing is, Brendel is just more consistent in his recordings. Also Brendel has this stupid idea of not observing repeats on D.960, so I won't forgive him at that.. But he's one of the most respected Schubert's interpreter (just a little bland, though).

 

4. Fantasie in F-minor in Piano Four Hands, D.940

- The greatest of Schubert's piano duets! This piece is the pinnacle of the genre. Military March no. 1, might be Schubert's most popular, but the Fantasy is thousands time greater. What pathos and tragedy! The 1st movement is so sad and lovely.

Good coices from you over all but this deserves a special mention. To listen to this piece everyday of my life would be enough to stay happy.

I don't know what it is about Schubert but there is something in his music that I can't find anywhere else.

 

@Duke

I agree. Schubert is something else.. He died so young, ill and impoverished, yet he created some of the most beautiful works in music. He is divine. In my opinion, he created the most beautiful piano pieces, not Chopin or Beethoven for that matter. Schubert can write a joyful piece with melancholy. He is unique.

I read somewhere, when asked about her opinion in Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the pianist, Mitsuko Uchida remarked, 'Mozart is the greatest genius, Beethoven, the greatest composer but Schubert, the most beautiful of them all!'

Schubert is an essential part of my musical life. He's a hero!

 

@ Il_Pensoroso

I wholeheartedly agree..

I haven't seen the movie yet, but because you have mentonied it, I'll go and find a copy.

Schubert's early piano sonatas such as no. 11 to 18 were vastly underrated compared to his popular last sontas. They were beautiful and sublime too. My current favorite are D.845 and D.894. Such masterworks!

 

Schubert's early piano sonatas such as no. 11 to 18 were vastly underrated compared to his popular last sontas. They were beautiful and sublime too. My current favorite are D.845 and D.894. Such masterworks!

I haven't listened to Schubert Sonatas carefully as you. But the second Theme from the fisrt movement of Sonata in A minor D. 784 , how is strongly effective and full of inspiration ! Once hear , you can never forget !

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I would far sooner listen to Schubert’s piano music than that by any other composer. The man was unpretentious and uncomplicated and yet an utter genius at composition on the keyboard. I can easily imagine him knocking out one masterpiece work after another with seemingly little effort. Not all of his piano composition exposes technical wizardry but it all mostly manages to flow wonderfully, and convey a wonderful sense of elegance, balance and togetherness. It’s obviously entirely a matter of taste but Schubert’s piano writing to me is far more listenable to for long stretches than any other musical material I can think of.

Probably Beethoven’s piano sonatas come the closest to providing comparable listening enjoyment. Here I have dozens of recordings by just about everyone with any claim to fame, and I have waxed lyrical about Beethoven in the past, but I’d chuck the whole lot in preference to my collection of Schubert piano works if I had make a choice in some hypothetical shipwreck situation, and could only carry one trunk load of CDs from some shark-infested coral sea or whatever to safety ashore.

I have been collecting Schubert works for many years and now have virtually everything he committed to paper that has survived. He wrote a surprisingly large amount of solo piano music. I have divided my collection into four main headings: piano sonata; piano duet; piano dance; other solo piano works (impromptu, moment musicaux, variations, scherzo, wanderer fantasy, etc). The largest component (not including any duplicates) is piano sonata, followed by piano duets, then other solo piano, and finally other piano dance.

In response to the OP, a short list of my favourites, with my preferred recordings, would be:

• D 537 – Piano sonata in A minor (Michelangelo)
• D 557 - Piano sonata No 5 (Radu Lupu)
• D 566 – Piano sonata No 6 (Kemppf)
• D 625 – Piano sonata No 11 (Badura-Skoda)
• D 664 – Piano sonata No 13 (Fleisher)
• D 784 – Piano sonata No 14 (“Grande” sonata) (Imogen Cooper)
• D 780 – Moments musicaux
• D 790 – 12 landler (Schiff)
• D 812 - (Grand Duo) (Kissin, Levine)
• D 840 - Piano sonata No 15“Reliquie” (Imogen Cooper)
• D 845 - Piano sonata No 16 (Staier)
• D 850 - Piano sonata no 17 (“Gasteiner”) I think that the second movement of this work, “con moto”, is among my top Schubert pieces ever (Michel Dalberto)
• D 894 – Piano Sonata (“Fantasy”) (Maria João Pires)
• D 959-D960 – last three Piano Sonatas (Uchida, Cooper, Brendel respectively)
• D 899 - Impromptus
• D 940 - Fantasy (Richter)
• D 947 - Lebensturrme (Badur-Skoda and Demus)
• D 951 - Rondo in A major (Argerich and Freire)
• D 915 - Allegretto in C minor (Imogen Cooper)
• D 946 - Klavierstucke

 

Finally, Tocatta emerged! We are waiting for you.. Any Schubert conversation without Tocatta's input is futile..

I don't have many CD's as Tocatta because I prefer digital music.. But I'm steadily collecting Schubert's works.

Tocatta, do you have a large collection of WandererFantasie? Is still Richter the best or you prefer other pianists?

 

Finally, Tocatta Tocatta, do you have a large collection of WandererFantasie? Is still Richter the best or you prefer other pianists?

The Wanderer Fantasy

I was saying previously that not all of Schubert's piano works require piano wizardry. This one does certainly does as it is considered to be Schubert's main pianistic showcase and his most technically demanding piano composition. Schubert could not play the work himself, and he conceived it entirely out of his imagination. His hands were too small for a start, and he was not a virtuoso pianist. During the composition of its last section, he walked away from it in his study out of frustration over its difficulty, and famously said of it "let the devil play the stuff". This is about at the upper limit of complexity to which I like piano solo works to be taken. Beyond that, we are into some of the more difficult territory of Liszt and Alkan, at which level of complexity I lose interest rapidly as it is too confusing to follow.

There are many recordings of The Wanderer Fantasy. I would say that the version most highly recommended is by Richter, recorded in 1963 Paris. It's a tour de force and technically flawless. Another very good version is the one referred to by Sebastian Melmoth, by Pollini, recorded in 1973. Pollini is downright brilliant in my humble opinion, and this is another technically flawless rendition. It has the big advanatge of being partnered with Schumann's Op 17 Fantasie, which is another very great work and one of my overall favourite piano compositions. I can more or less guarantee that you would not be disappointed with this Pollini version. I prefer Richter slightly but I would suggest that you might get both if finances permit. Beyond that, it's a waste of money as these two say it all in abundance. Save your money for other Schubert material you don't yet have.

Remember too that there is quite a famous piano with orchestra transcrition of the Wanderer Fantasy by Franz Liszt (S 366). I have a several recordings of this, which is the nearest thing you will see of Schubert in piano/orchestral mode, and the version with Alfred Brendel and the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra is the one I would suggest.

I have dozens of pictures all over my study littered with pictures of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. Here's a touching picture of Schubert to think about:

 

I'm not 'Toccata', but I have more Schubert than any other composer in my CD collection--including his complete piano works.

Pollini did a famous Wanderer Fantasie, but on CD it's coupled with Schumann, and I prefer Brendel's CD with the late Bb Sonata:
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Sonata-...ata-D-960-Wanderer-Fantasy/dp/B00000E3KE/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/192-9625497-2762130

Otherwise, my single favourite Schubert piano work is his great D-major Sonata D.850:
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Sonatas-D-850-575/dp/B000069CUR/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/192-9625497-2762130

 

I have just realised that my list in post 9 got into a bit of muddle, with two errors:

I should have included D 760 - The Wanderer Fantasy (Richter).

The entry for D 940 should say Fantasia for piano duet (Perahia and Lupu).

 

I'm finding some good Schubert and all around information in this thread.

 

I LOVE Schubert! There's so much by him that I absolutely adore, but if I must narrow them down, there are three that are especially dear to my heart:

1. Fantasie in F Minor (this was not limited to solo piano)
2. Impromptus Op. 142 (is it cheating to count that as one set?)
3. Sonata in B Flat D. 960

I'm very sorry to say that I don't care as much for the Wanderer Fantasy as I do almost all of Schubert's other output, whether that be piano or any other medium. And I don't want to get off topic with this, but I would just like to toss in that Alkan has lots of good (at least, I find enjoyable) music that isn't nearly as hard as things like "Le Preux" or the Grande Sonate (both of which I don't personally care a lot for).

But back to Schubert: the Fantasie in F Minor is just so powerful and sad, I am transported into another dimension every time I hear or play it! One of my friends once said to me after I finished rehearsing this piece with my duet partner, "You live in your own little world, don't you?" I responded, not trying to be clever, but totally serious and with a totally straight face, "There's nothing little about it."

It's a great tragedy that Schubert lived to be only 31...

 

Definitely the Fantasie for piano Four hands in F minor, D. 940 (or even for two hands) as many have mentioned above. Have you folks ever heard it orchestrated? It works because Schubert seems to right orchestral music even if it's for piano. Wonderful piece.

 

I started hearing it in my head orchestrated the other day. Thank you for sharing this!!

By the way, there is a solo piano version? Is it good?

EDIT: Also, Kabelevsky made a concerto arrangement out of it:

 

I think the two hands version is a transcription by some other musician.

The orchestration in my link was by composer named Felix Mottl. ? I'm not familiar with his works.

I didn't know about the Kabelevsky concerto setting. It's nice, in some ways the best of both worlds. Sometimes I find piano four hands or works for two pianos to get a little cluttered or muddy sounding to my ears, more so in Brahms than in Schubert though.

 

I just want to express my outmost admiration in Murray Perahia's recording of Schubert's Impromptus. His interpretation of these little gems are the absolute finest, I've heard.

Here:

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Impr...mptus-Piano-Franz-Vienna/dp/B0000025N5/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324993099&sr=8-2

Radu Lupu's version is also excellent.

I take away my words about Schiff. Perahia and Lupu can't be beat..

 

I haven't got an out-and-out favourite. Such is the quality of his mature piano works (for two and four hands) that if I listen to one of his masterpieces then I find I have to listen to a whole bunch of others as well - and I've got about ten discs of this stuff! The above also applies to his chamber output - there are so many great works that I have difficulty listening to just any in isolation. Anyone else a repeat victim of this beautiful dilemma?

 

I can't listen to Schubert in large doses. He dissimulates too little; I can always hear the beating of his heart behind the music.

 

What do you mean?

 

Duplicate deleted

 

Piano Solo:

Piano Sonata in D major, D. 850
Piano Sonata in G major, D. 894
Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959
Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960
Impromptus, D. 899 & 935

Piano Four Hands:
Sonata in C major "Grand Duo," D. 812
Divertissement a la hongroise, D. 818
Divertissement a la francaise, D. 823
Fantasie in F minor, D. 940
Rondo in A major, D. 951

 

Piano Sonata D. 960.
Impromptus D. 899.

 

Romantic piano composers.

* Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813 – 1888)
* Mily Balakirev
* Friedrich Baumfelder
* Ludwig van Beethoven
* William Sterndale Bennett
* Henri Bertini
* Johannes Brahms
* Ignacio Cervantes
* Emmanuel Chabrier
* Cecile Chaminade
* Frédéric Chopin

 

Like the late Sonatas D958, 959 and 960, Impromptus D899/935 and the Moments Musicaux D780/915

I don't have a set pianist that have to play them, I believe that there are so many ways of interpreting them wonderfully that I don't want to elevate anyone as the one to have.

/ptr

 

The three late sonatas are amazing.

Also the Wanderer Fantasy and the Klavierstucke

And the Fantasie. Try Lupu and Perahia.

 

Piano Sonatas - Lupu, Sokolov, Lewis, Uchida.
Impromptus (Complete) - Brendel (1972 - '74)

 

Favorites, with favorite performers

B-flat piano sonata, D. 960
With repeat: Fleisher, Two Hands; Hough; Pollini
W/o repeat: Goode; Brendel (analog); Rubinstein (1969 version)

A Major piano sonata, D. 959
Brendel (analog); Goode

C Minor piano ponata, D. 958
Pollini

A Minor piano sonata, D. 784
Brendel, Live in Salzburg

Impromptus
Various for different impromptus, but a good set is Perahia

Moments musicaux
Edwin Fischer

Fantasie for Four Hands in F Minor
I have Lupu-Perahia, but would like a more passionate rendition

 

Try the version from Christian Ivaldi & Noël Lee on the 1st Volume of their complete Schubert four hands work.

The second volume is also worth, a reference!

 

For me the best all round for the last three sonatas is Lupu.

However, I have quite a few recordings. There are so many pianists with things to say about this music.

For the Wanderer Fantasy - Richter or Pollini.

 

For the Wanderer Fantasy - Richter or Pollini.

The Curzon recording is one of the most inexplicable releases since LPs replaced 78s. Interesting too, up until... .

 

Just got introduced to these pieces, wonderful stuff:

 

Oh yeah, that one is good. My favorite piano piece by Schubert.