I’ve never heard the Richter, but the Schnabel is one of my all time favorite piano recordings. Also like Curzon and Kovacevich.

 

To me, the opening bars of the first movement are the most striking moment in the solo piano repertoire to that time in history. The whole first movement is a beautiful, intense balance of darkness and sentimentality. I'm not really comfortable with this being our most highly recommended / favorite piano sonata, but I am happy if it gets a little more recognition.

 

An underappreciated performance, because he's not a household name, is that by Gabriel Chodos, chairman of the piano dept. at the New England Conservatory. He's made Schubert a personal specialty for decades and his performances are transcendent.

It's a special work and there's absolutely nothing in music like that low trill in the opening movement -- nor that step-wise modulation at the end of the finale.

 

The "low trill in the opening movement" is likely inspired by Beethoven's cello shake in the Andante of his Op. 131 string quartet. It seems Beethoven threw this in just to keep us off balance. I know of no earlier example of this sort of thing.

When you hear it, you think, "What's this all about?" Schubert wrote his sonata a couple of years after Beethoven's work, which he admired greatly.

Listen here, in the music after 18:09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4_FnH49tA .

 

Good point. Hadn't thought of it, although the insistance of the cello in 131 remains, to me, one of those points of humor in that quartet that always brings a small smile to my face.

 

Although my traditional champion of Schubert is Kempff, I must admit that Curzon remains to be my favourite on this magnificent sonata. Also, I feel an inevitable urge to mention Tatiana Nikolayeva and Claudio Arrau who are not on the list.

 

Interesting. Back in '70s, when Chodos first recorded it on vinyl (for a minor label), one national reviewer (I forget which one) wrote that his and Curzon's were the two best out there.

 

This is my favorite piano sonata. All I can say is that it's perfect.

 

Lots of important recordings not mentioned, including Yudina and the Horowitz ones.

 

This is my favorite d960, the lesser known Vox Walter Klien version. The production is great -true piano sound. The Andante is wonderful and the well-known sequence that starts at about 2:40 is special. It just sings with happiness after the somber opening which is what Schubert, I believe, intended. I have never heard another pianist perform this part as well.

 

Richter took the Andante to another level. It was used to great effect in the documentary about him.

 

Part of the pleasure of exploring classical music is to find how musicians have their own personal readings and how these help us to discover the richness of each composition. Usually, we tend to be partial to some interpreters and may compare their approaches or "styles" or even try to create lists of "best interpretations". Now that an immense number of recordings is more easily available it may be interesting to find that some personal characteristics may "define" them but many of the great interpreters also gave us different "versions" of the same piece and their own approach could change considerably over time. This evolution and variety may be very interesting to explore and help us to realize that music and particularly interpretations can never be carved in stone. As an example I looked again into Sviatoslav Richter's recordings of the Schubert D.960 sonata (probably there are 10 or 11 recordings but only 7 available in CD). Of course, tempo is a relative perception and is always a too simple way to describe any interpretation. However, just as an exploring exercise it is interesting to look at the time differences between the first (Moscow 1949) and one of his last recordings (Prague 1972). Curiously enough young Richter's was even "faster" than Kempff's "classic" 1967 version.

Richter 1949 1. 22:16 2. 9:31 3. 3:14 4. 6:55 41:51
Richter 1972 1. 25:44 2. 9:53 3. 3:34 4. 7:40 46:51
Kempff 1967 1. 21:09 2. 9:18 3. 4:48 4. 8:01 42:71

1. Molto moderato 2. Andante sostenuto 3. Scherzo Trio 4. Allegro ma non troppo

 

Re recordings, what do we have on a proper Schubert piano,

Staier
Khouri
Vermeulen
Bilson
Badura Skoda

Anything else?

 

Re recordings, what do we have on a proper Schubert piano,

Staier
Khouri
Vermeulen
Bilson
Badura Skoda

Anything else?

Andras Schiff?

 

It's one of my top five piano sonatas. I like the Brendel, Kempff and Uchida recordings.

I see the trill as foreshadowing the modulation to G flat; when it first appears, it's unsettling because we don't know what means. Then some bars later the opening motive gets a little twist - Bb - A - Bb - C - D becomes Bb - Ab - Bb - Cb -Db - and we understand. A new world opens up.

The whole thing is otherworldly.

 

Recordings I have

Kempff
Brendel
Lupu
Richter
Anda
A Fischer
L Fleisher
Van Cliburn
Pollini
Perahia
But my favourite is Stephen Kovacevich - simply mesmeric

 

Do you like this work? Do you love it? Why? What do you like about it?

Yes, it's one of my favorite piano sonatas, although not the favorite. I think that it's profound and has very beautiful melodies, and I think that it's special because it's one of the last completed works of a genius composer, Schubert. It can move me a lot depending on my mood.

Do you have any reservations about it?

Yes, I don't like performances that in my opinion are too slow (Kempff) or lack emotion (Pollini). Because the exposition of the first movement is somewhat long, I also prefer that it's not repeated.

And of course, what are your favorite recordings?

Brendel's is my favorite. I love his performances of Schubert. The comments on this thread made me curious about Uchida though; I have her performances of all Schubert sonatas, but for some reason has never listened to them yet. Her Mozart is top notch in my opinion.

 

It is the only work where I like all the other movements way more than the first. I've never heard a theme as repeated / reinforced so many times with so little change as in the first movement. The most noticeable is 2/3's through, when the main theme is played loudly exactly the same way as much earlier in the movement, I feel like it didn't cover nearly as much ground along the way as I feel led to believe. The 2nd movement is very moody. Overall I feel the whole sonata could have contained more content for its length. Then again, he was no Beethoven.

 

I've never heard a theme as repeated / reinforced so many times with so little change as in the first movement. The most noticeable is 2/3's through, when the main theme is played loudly exactly the same way as much earlier in the movement, I feel like it didn't cover nearly as much ground along the way as I feel led to believe. . . .

It's a bit like Waiting for Godot, or Happy Days.

Then again, he was no Beethoven.

Aha

 

He wasn't even a Clementi or a Hummel.

 

Wh-a-a-a-a-a-t??

 

Sarcasm mode = On
These are just some of the ordinary pianists that wasted their time on this ordinary work:

Sviatoslav Richter (four recordings), Vladimir Horowitz (two recordings), Rudolf Serkin (two recordings), Claudio Arrau, Arthur Rubinstein (two recordings), Alfred Brendel (several recordings), Richard Goode, Wilhelm Kempff, Clifford Curzon, Jörg Demus, Leon Fleisher (two recordings), Clara Haskil, Evgeny Kissin, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, S. Kovacevich, Maurizio Pollini, Maria João Pires, Menahem Pressler, Artur Schnabel, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Maria Yudina, Krystian Zimerman, András Schiff (two recordings).

Sarcasm mode = Off

 

I like the work quite a bit, but I do find it a bit repetitive. I wouldn't say it's one of my favourite piano sonatas.

 

It's true that if you're against the concept of songs you might not like Schubert.

 

If memory serves, that "divine spark" quote comes from Schindler. So a grain of salt may be handy.

 

Not only from Schindler but from Anselm Hüttenbrenner too, who also said that on one visit, when Schubert called with Hüttenbrenner, Beethoven remarked, "You, Anselm have my mind, but Franz has my soul."

 

There was more to Schubert than just pure melody. It was what he did with it and that didn't always mean numerous repeats:

 

Well, a little too unconvincing to think that everything Schindler or Hüttenbrenner had to say related to Beethoven was "myth-making" .

This is from a Schindler's article published in the Theaterzeitung (May 3, 1831):

"As the illness to which Beethoven finally succumbed after four months of suffering from the beginning made his ordinary mental activity impossible, a diversion had to be thought of which would fit his mind and inclinations. And so it came about that I placed before him a collection of Schubert's songs, about 60 in number, among them many which were then still in manuscript. This was done not only to provide him with a pleasant entertainment, but also to give him an opportunity to get acquainted with Schubert in his essence in order to get from him a favorable opinion of Schubert's talent, which had been impugned, as had that of others by some of the exalted ones. The great master, who before then had not known five songs of Schubert's, was amazed at their number and refused to believe that up to that time (February, 1827) he had already composed over 500 of them. But if he was astonished at the number he was filled with the highest admiration as soon as he discovered their contents. For several days he could not separate himself from them, and every day he spent hours with Iphigenia's monologue, 'Die Grenzen der Menschheit,' 'Die Allmacht,' 'Die junge Nonne,' 'Viola,' the 'Müllerlieder,' and others. With joyous enthusiasm he cried out repeatedly 'Truly, a divine spark dwells in Schubert; if I had had this poem I would have set it to music'; this in the case of the majority of poems whose material contents and original treatment by Schubert he could not praise sufficiently. Nor could he understand how Schubert had time to 'take in hand such long poems, many of which contained ten others,' as he expressed it. . . . What would the master have said had be seen, for instance, the Ossianic songs, 'Die Bürgschaft,' 'Elysium,' 'Der Taucher' and other great ones which have only recently been published? In short, the respect which Beethoven acquired of Schubert's talent was so great that he now wanted so see his operas and pianoforte pieces; but his illness had now become so severe that he could no longer gratify this wish. But he often spoke of Schubert and predicted of him that he 'would make a great sensation in the world,' and often regretted that he had not learned to know him earlier" (Thayer: 1043 - 1044).

Thayer then reports that, in his letter of February 21, 1858, to Ferdinand Luib, Anselm Hüttenbrenner had written:
"Beethoven said of Schubert one day: "That man has the divine spark" (Thayer: 1044), and in a further letter to Luib: "But this I know positively, that about eight days before Beethoven's death Prof. Schindler, Schubert and I visited the sick man. Schindler announced us two and asked Beethoven whom he would see first. He said: 'Let Schubert come first!' (Thayer: 1044).

 

Antonin Dvorak's article on Schubert, for anyone interested:

FRANZ SCHUBERT

by Antonin Dvorak

(in collaboration with Henry T. Finck)

published in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, New York, 1894

http://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/dvorak-on-schubert

"I should follow Rubenstein in including Schubert on the list of the very greatest composers, but I should not follow him in omitting Mozart."

...

"Schubert's chamber music, especially his string quartets and his trios for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, must be ranked among the very best of their kind in all musical literature."

...

"Of Schubert's symphonies, too, I am such an enthusiastic admirer that I do not hesitate to place him next to Beethoven, far above Mendelssohn, as well as above Schumann."

...

"Were all his compositions to be destroyed but two, I should say, save the last two symphonies. Fortunately we are not confronted by any such necessity. The loss of Schubert's piano-forte pieces and songs would indeed be irreparable."

 

Just more opinions. We now know Dvorak put Schlubbert above Mendelssohn and Schumann and that Rubenstein had a generally lower opinion of Mozart. I'll store this information away in case it turns up in a quiz.

Maybe Dvorak felt Schlubbert had been unduly neglected. So like so many other composers he joined one of the rehabilitation campaigns for a past composer to lobby him into the pantheon of of not just good composers, but great composers.

 

everyone has a blind spot. I would place Schubert very high of my list of best composers (in the top 10). He had an uparalleled melodic gift. No wonder that Dvořák felt related to him, because he had a great melodic gift too. This particular sonata - D. 960 - may be amongst his weaker ones, but it is still pretty good. His masterpiece is the Death and the Maiden quartet for me.

 

One of the very great pieces by Schubert, I think.

Well, Richter anyway was famous for only playing works he loved. That is why there are no complete sets of Richter's Beethoven or Schubert sonatas. And Richter also gave us extraordinary accounts of this work, quite unlike anyone else's. His was not the only way to do it - there are many fine accounts of this sonata - but it was unforgettable. As for your famous deafness to Schubert, what can I say? You look for Beethoven in his music but he was the very opposite in so many ways. Beethoven worked at his music, relying on elaborate and unbelievably imaginative development of his ideas to arrive at elevated and exalted music. That was not Schubert's way at all. Schubert's ideas were themselves sublime and he didn't need to work them much to arrive at music of extraordinary eloquence and depth.

 

One of the very great pieces by Schubert, I think.

Schubert's ideas were themselves sublime and he didn't need to work them much to arrive at music of extraordinary eloquence and depth.

You can all keep dreaming up new sentences of exalted praise, but it will not alter the hard facts, Namely: that he was a repeat merchant who when he got a good melody, he flogged it to within an inch of its life with no or barely any alteration. That his piano pieces suffer from terrible fits of vamping and hammering in the left hand, or endless arpeggios to pad-out the latest of his one-note sambas.
Boring symphonies which, yet again, start with solid melodies that are pile-driven into the ground by repetition

I used to quite like his C minor, D958, an homage to LvB, but then there's so much to choose from from LvB himself in that sphere. Like driving a Mazda when you have a Maserati in the garage.

 

Ah I wasn’t aware of that one. I listened to some of Badura Skoda last night, the colours of the different registers give it the feel of chamber music.