Customer Reviews

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D.958 & D.959

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These sonatas are moody, passionate, and at times incredibly gentle, and Mitsuko Uchida captures all these emotions, with her superb artistry and brilliant technique. This wonderful music reveals more of its treasure with each hearing, and my admiration for Ms. Uchida's interpretation keeps growing.

Recorded in '97, the sound is exceptional, with a crystal clear sparkling quality to it. The booklet insert has a piece on how and when these sonatas were written, and makes comparisons to Beethoven, which I fail to see...I find the soul of their compositions are so completely different. The total running time is 73 minutes, and the expressive cover photo completes the package...Ms. Uchida's an extraordinary pianist, and her beauty a photographer's delight.

I have long been an admirer of Brendel's Schubert. For me he has a direct, incisive clarity that lays the music bare in all its startling glory. With the release of Uchida's D960, I had to admit that Brendel had found his equal, and Uchida's recording had the added bonus of the repeats being included. If Uchida had approached D959 in the same way as she did D960--where immense spiritual vistas part and invite the listener in--then we would have had another legendary recording on our hands. Unfortunately, she takes D959 at at pretty brisk clip, especially in the first and outer movements, and those great Schubertian intangibles are lost. I also agree with the previous reviewer that there is a certain self-consciousness in her reading of the slow movement, which I realize must be incredibly difficult to play, even though I am not a pianist. On the other hand, the D958 is played as well as I could have hoped for, which surprised me, since it's a very vigorous, hard-driving sonata, and I've never associated Uchida with the kind of playing she successfully calls forth here. My conclusion? If you can have only one recording of Schubert's final three sonatas, go for Brendel (available on a budget Philips 2-for-1), but if you're a true Schubert afficianado, you owe it to yourself to include Uchida, since there is something new, vital and important in her interpretations.

I felt compelled to submit this review primarily to increase the number of stars associated with this recording (which stood at four due to the review below)!

This disc, along with all of Mitsuko's Schubert, is stunning. She plays with the consummate sythesis of intellect and spirit. She has command of sublime articulation. Her phrasing suggests she has a very personal relationship and understanding of the music. Even if you don't "agree" with her, you must acknowledge and respect her argument. However, I personally hang on every note.

I think her aptitude for Schubert is remarkable considering that her previous successes were with Mozart. Whereas Mozart's music is charmed with bouyancy and effervescence, Schubert is riddled with angst, melancholic malaise, bittersweet beauty, and heart-stopping sadness. Mitsuko's virtuosity in both of these bodies of work is certainly a token of her genius.

Once again: five stars, not four!

If this account is worth 5 stars, then what does one give Perahia's or Richter's or Brendel's? Without question, Uchida is a fine pianist and all her strengths are on display on this disc. However, as thoughtful and as integrated as her performance of D959 is, for me her interpretation of the second movement, surely one of the most haunting in classical music, while effective in its own way, lacks the atmosphere, mystery and sheer other-worldliness that other pianists have brought to it. Uchida's playing is hyper perceptive as usual, no arguing that, but that only makes me more aware that I am listening to an interpretation, rather than to the music itself. In short, an interesting and intelligent performance, but not a great one.

Uchida's Schubert sonata cycle has been a divider, not a uniter. She is intrinsically a tinkering kind of pianist, and it is hit and miss when she confronts music that doesn't respond well to her self-conscious approach, which hardly leaves two measures in a row untouched by some interpretative squiggle. Great music-making isn't composed of squiggles, which is what sank her recording of the B-flat Sonata D. 960. Here we get the two other expansive posthumous sonatas. They have been regarded as masterpieces during the long decades when Schubert's piano writing was viewed skeptically. both are ambitious, emotionally ambiguous, repetitive, and filled with the light of melodic genius.

I prefer for all the late Schubert sonatas to be played with structural discipline, at least enough to hold them together. I dislike hearing them played as restrained step-children of a chaste classical era. However, the latter style is greatly favored by British critics; hence their adulation of Schiff, Lupu, Brendel, and Kempff. Those pianists make my mind wander. Off I go to the wilder precincts of Richter and the virtuosic command of Pollini. a recent find has been the young Paul Lewis. He isn't heroic, but his gift for phrasing Schubert in a natural way while still finding dramatic contrasts is very winning. Also of note in the young American Jonathan Biss, who reflects the same style.

Uchida does well by the measures I've set. She is always imaginative and fully expressive. for the most part she leaves fussiness at the door -- the melody that opens the Adagio of the C minor Sonata D. 958 is announced simply and grows in eloquence with a discreet touch. The mood shifts in the first movement are well handled, but in the Scherzo Uchida is bangy and overly forceful; she isn't helped by the engineers, either -- the piano sound is hard and glaring whenever she makes a strong attack. The skipping ebullience of the finale is also allowed free rein, with no attempts to retouch what doesn't need retouching. It's in this movement that Paul Lewis releases the music's joy more naturally than Uchida does, but she's successful in her own right.

The A major Sonata d. 959 is revered almost as much as the B-flat Sonata to follow, and the slow movement in particular is taken as a touchstone of Schubert's mysterious depths (David Hurwitz's phrase, "cosmic, timeless sadness," obliterates the ambiguity with a verbal bludgeon). Uchida is jerky in the first movement, failing to capture a flow as Schubert constantly shifts shape. She begins the haunting Andantino a bit flat-footed, but her innate musicality is always evident. The Scherzo is sunlit and dashing (even if the piano sound is brittle), and the gliding finale is at once joyous and serene -- it's the best movement in her reading.

In all, without making me marvel, these are two strong readings, enjoyable from beginning to end.

In this Schubert recording Mitsuko Uchida offers two sonatas (D 958 and D 959) of the composer's final trilogy, in a suitable highly dramatic reading. Her approach - consisting of vigorous brisk attacks followed by poetic moments where the pace gets slow and ample, favoring the lyric side - unfolds a deep and reckless tension existent (maybe hidden or ignored) in these large-scale works. In Uchida's hands both sonatas are born from a robust conception of the whole, though the details are minutely conceived making the rendition literally sparkling here and there, compelling all the way. The romantic nervousness, the inquietude of a tormented stormy soul, the noble outbursts, the distilled melancholic vision - are the Schubertian ingredients out of which Uchida compounds her very personal rendition here. Maybe not all the accents are dropped in the places where we were used to find them, maybe some phrases seem too harsh in certain places compared to what we have come to expect, maybe the floating cantabile - so dear to Schubert - is deliberately diminished by the care to avoid sentimentalize the music. But even so - dominated by this odd refusal of sentimentality and buoyancy - her conception of the two sonatas stands as a valuable achievement in close proximity of those fabulous versions of Alfred Brendel and Radu Lupu, the undisputed masters of the field.

Notwithstanding, two full movements here seem to me flawless and quite impressive for their accomplished articulation, both on emotional level and technical one (which, however, is unimpeachable throughout): (i) the final mad race with the destiny - Allegro of the C minor sonata (D958) - where a sense of sad rebellion can be noticed in the stunning dance of the fingers, and (ii) the haunting despair of that fearsome Andantino in A major sonata D959, bordering on resignation and final solace marvelously conveyed by those humdrum lent descending octaves at the left hand propping the ethereal melodies at the right hand. Uchida employs her full gamut of artistic means, unfolding the frailties of the human being in front of the most somber premonitions or unjust fate, and enjoys to point - as Schubert did in his time - to the inexhaustible rescuing resources of the soul. Even if for those two particular movements, I think Mitsuko Uchida's rendition here deserves all five stars!

Here are two of the monumental late-great piano sonatas by Schubert (the other being No. 21 D960) by one of today's outstanding pianists, Mitsuko Uchida. These grand conceptions are treasures in the piano literature, largely due to their beguiling melodies, effortless flow and powerful tinges of tragedy. The A major D959 is probably the most popular with the public - with the last work D960 not too far behind - but the C-minor is also a work of epic qualities.

There are many fine recordings of Schubert's piano sonatas which would include Schnabel, Lupu, Brendel, Kempff, Schiff and many others. All are legendary and offer musical insights and delights. When the choices are so good, it really comes down to what nuances and emotive qualities the performer imparts that most capture your heart and soul. And concerning this aspect, Mitsuko Uchida is well known for her "heartfelt" approach to her readings and these works are no exception.

In another review of Schubert's Sonatas by Uchida, Amazon lead reviewer Edith Eisler described Uchida's Schubert style quite accurately I felt. It is a style and approach one hears immediately, but a style with qualities that Eisler failed to realize are exactly why many love Uchida's pianism. Regardless, you can be your own judge of how it strikes you, but I feel her description was well stated and applied to the cycle in general ... "Uchida's interpretation is interesting and highly personal, but rather puzzling. She takes considerable liberties with tempo and dynamics, lingering over details, slowing down to end phrases, hesitating on upbeats. This makes her playing subtle, delicate, and poetic, but also fussy and exaggerated; the expressiveness sounds manipulated, the music loses its pulse, flow, and natural simplicity and is never allowed to speak for itself."

I have to agree with her on this when comparing to other performances, such as Alfred Brendel's Philips' DUO recording. While poetic and beautiful Mitsuko Uchida's pauses, slight shifts and overall rubato in works like the lyrical A major seems to disrupt the flow somewhat and draw attention to such personal nuances of expression rather than the overall progression of the musical story. But it is artistic nevertheless, and such things I conclude are really a matter of one's personal taste and what really penetrates into your being and resonates when listening to these works. Personally, I prefer Brendel's approach but I can also appreciate why many adore Uchida's music. Her expressivity is deep, enchanting and captivating - but may not be to everyone's liking. However, two cycles that have much less dispute overall - and where her magnificance is almost without critique - are the Mozart Piano Sonatas (Philips, 5 CD set) and the Debussy Etudes.

I tend to agree with those reviewers who passed medium high marks for this recording.
Uchida has a good concept of the classical style. She is fully capable of giving dues to the composer's creation without excesses and with due expressiveness. You would not go amiss listening to Uchida's renditions.
Being a lady pianist (and an Asian lady), Uchida stands amongst the foremost of her genre, especially in the classical period compositions.
Her readings of these two late Schubert sonatas are not Apollonian, but it is not truely poetic, either. Uchida seems to have focused on the bare basics without extraneous trimmings, and the tempi are all natural and flow freely and evenly, as are apt in Schubert's music. What matters to the listeners as quibbles, however, are that her touching is more often than not too 'hard-cored', the keys being pressed to a harsh end in many of the more strenuous passages, hampering the overall mood of the passages in question in some cases. This hard-cored touching might do fine for Beethoven or Schumann, but alas, not for Mozart, let alone Schubert. And Uchida is not one jot aided by the recorded sound of Philips in this recording.

I've been enchanted with Ms. Uchida's Mozart on numerous occasions and respect her musical intelligence a great deal. To my ears, however, she seems to find it almost impossible simply to RELAX when trying to play Schubert's flowing lyricism. She seems wound up half the time and worries over him like a mother hen when he's certainly not worrying over himself. She's turning him into the neurotic that he's not. Some of her phrasing and runs are tight and sound unidiomatic of Schubert, and I've yet to hear her in a performance of his music that didn't take some of the joy out of it. Horowitz and Brendel have the sense to allow Schubert to unfold naturally his cornucopia of endlessly lyrical ideas and keep his exalted singing spirituality intact as well. They look up to the heavens while she has him tied to the ground. I do not consider it an advance on behalf of one of my favorite composers that he's being turned into something he was not: somewhat grim, banging, Beethovenish and self-conscious. Not to my taste.

What a beauty to listen to. Amazing, at times you can feel her in the room playing only for you. I loose myself everytime I listen to these sonatas.