Customer Reviews

Schubert: Piano Sonatas in A minor, D537 & A major, D664 / German Dances, D820, D790

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For many years Schubert's piano sonatas languished in obscurity. But they are irreplaceable in their lyricism, simple depth, and spirit. They are among my favorite works of music. It is fortunate that there are many recordings available of the Schubert sonatas. Among the best interpreters of Schubert is Ms. Mitsuko Uchida, who was a student of Willhelm Kempff. In this CD she performs admirably two early Schubert sonatas together with two late sets of German dances.

The sonata in A major, D.664, probably remains the best-known of all Schubert's piano sonatas. Schubert composed it when he was 21. I have attempted this work myself on the piano. This sonata is endearing from the outset with the singing theme of the opening movement, lyrical, spontaneous and deep, somehow, all at once. It is followed by a delicately-paced andante which is the voice of innocence. The concluding movement is rapidly-paced full of arpeggios, long running passages, dramatic pauses, and singing themes in the bass. I have often visualized Schubert sitting in his apartment, alone or with friends, running his hands over they keyboard and reflecting over this movement.

I was greatly taken with Uchida's soft touch and her sense of phrasing. She plays with a beautiful legato, a fluid sense of rhythm and pacing, and a sense of phrasing which has been thought through for every bar of the work. Yet she keeps the entire sense of the piece in view and allows Schubert to sing. This is an outstanding performance.

The sonata in a minor, D. 537 was composed two years earlier when Schubert was heavily under the influence of Beethoven. It is one of his earliest attempts at a piano sonata. The first movement opens with an angry Beethoven-influenced phrase followed by filigree in the piano's upper register. There is a lyrical second theme and imaginative, Schubertian turns of harmony. The second movement of this work, a theme and variations is notable because Schubert used this theme as the basis for the finale of his posthumous sonata in A. major, D.859. That finale is one of the great movements of piano writing. In this work, the theme has a more casual, unbuttoned character as Schubert proceeds leisurely through several variations. The finale opens in a minor but soon shifts to a melodic, sprightly theme in the major key.

This CD also includes two sets of waltzes. Schubert wrote simple piano waltzes in abundance, together with his more serious works. Again, I have attempted some of the earlier sets myself. The two sets of German Dances included here, D.820 and D.790 had been unfamiliar to me. They are late works and are striking in their intropection. They are beautifully performed. Schubert incorporated some of his earlier music into these sets. In the D. 790, I recognized several of an earlier set of German Dances that I have played.

This is a lyrical, probing CD of Schubert sonatas and dances by one of his finest interpreters of our day.

This CD completes Mitsuko Uchida's recordings of Schubert's piano sonatas, and it maintains the standards that she has set with her earlier recordings.

There is no late Schubert, of course, since he died at thirty-one; the two sonatas on this CD, however, are early even by Schubertian standards, having been composed at age nineteen (D. 537) and perhaps as early as age twenty-one (D. 664). They are both wonderful pieces in their own rights, but neither is a work of great profundity. A good deal of Uchida's success here is that she does not attempt to imbue either of them with a profundity that is not present in the music itself. As always, she respects the composer's own music, and lets it speak for itself. Similarly, she is quite content to play the German Dances as dances, not attempting to find subtleties that are not there. Yet at the same time, in all the pieces, her attention to detail is astonishing; clearly, she has thought every piece, every phrase, and every note through. Her thoughts, moreover, are completely respectful of Schubert's music. What I hear is Schubert and not Uchida. Highly recommended.

Mitsuko Uchida emphasizes the lyrical, poetic aspects of Schubert's scores in her latest recording, completing her Philips cycle of Schubert piano sonatas. While neither sonata should be regarded as essential recordings of Schubert's music (my favorite remains Wilhelm Kempff's, followed closely by Alfred Brendel's), they are splendid, lyrical performances which should appeal to those interested in a more poetic vision of Schubert's scores as well as Uchida's fans. The only disappointment is Uchida's playing of the German Dances, which sound a bit too refined and lyrical for my tastes. Yet this is a minor complaint; otherwise this is yet another splendid CD from one of our finest pianists.

The canon of Schubert sonatas has expanded to include many that were considered minor, juvenile, or "not profound." It took a long time, in other words, for Schubert to escape the shadow of Beethoven, but he had his own gifts, and despite the fact that the Sonata in A minor D. 537 opens with a strenuous, pouncing motto that sounds like Beethoven, the second movement brings a smile because its primary melody, a beautiful thing only Schubert could have composed, will later grow up and reappear, reworked but no less carefree, in the finale of the great Sonata no. 20, in a major. Schubert at seventeen wasn't himself at thirty, yet Uchida applies the same care and intelligence that she brings to his later work, and it makes a difference. Her way of making you pay attention is to insert personal changes of phrasing almost all the time, as if the listener is following a spontaneous flow of imagination. The Amazon reviewer describes these stylistic tactics accurately but doesn't like them. She's not alone. Uchida risk sounding fussing because she's never content to "let the music play itself." Here I think she's very successful in turning an uneven early work into something worth listening to all the way through.

Should she do as much restoration to Sonata No. 13 in A, D. 664, which is far better known? Apparently Uchida thinks so, because her manipulation of the line, even in the simple melody that opens the first movement, is taken almost to the point of exaggeration. Richter founds a dimension in this work very close to Beethoven, but even he was more straightforward. Yet once again I am on Uchida's side. I found it rewarding to follow her because she was lifting the music above being notes on a page, and she has reached a level of mastery that gives scope for her own thoughts; I wouldn't call them "liberties," as the Amazon reviewer does, but personal inspiration. I f we allow Glenn Gould that freedom, why not Uchida? Her tenderness in the slow movement is quite lovely. The finale is a touch too hesitant; this is where Richter allowed the music to run at its ow sweet will. Still, thee is a real interpreter at work, and what she does held my interest.

Which is to say that this final album in Uchida's Schubert cycle was deeply satisfying, ad although most owuld give the nod to her teacher, Wilhelm Kempff, I find her far more original and interesting musically.

In her early fifties, the great Japanese keyboard virtuoso Mitsuko Uchida decided to commit to the disc her insightful artistry in - and long devotion to - Schubert's piano music. Hence, a series of 8 distinct CDs had occured from 1997 to 2002, comprising no less than 12 sonatas interspersed with short piano pieces (waltzes, impromptus, moments musicaux, German dances, etc) issued by Philips to a great international acclaim. Then, all these recordings were brought together to compound a box set, released in 2005 and suggestively entitled "Mitsuko Uchida plays Schubert" - a kind of conclusive survey of her "Schubertian adventure". The CD under consideration here bears the number 2 in the box, though it was the last recorded and released.

Uchida's full artistic maturity displays a large scale of means to convey the lyrical content of Schubert's work, but never sentimentalizing the proceedings or outbid them. Completely immersed in the music, she aims at giving the most faithful account, the most empathic one. No tricky gestures, no arrogant declamation, no languid lament. The approach hints at the essences, looks for the truth of the score, for Uchida knows where the beauty of this music lies. Although the special Sonata in A minor (D 537) and the wonderful one in A major (D 664) received here a flawless rendition, with an inspired articulation in every compartment - musicality, tempo, technique, mood, playfulness, airiness, light cantabile - the highlights of this recording in my opinion are the two sets of German Dances (D 790 and D 820), miniatures beneficiary of the same qualities listed above and even more. There is an amazing sense of dance generously displayed by Uchida in these seductive gems.

When speaking of Schubert's keyboard output - I already wrote this - for many years I have counted among the living pianists only Alfred Brendel and Radu Lupu on my preferences' short list. Mitsuko Uchida proves to be in the same class of the greatest pianists of our time, uniquely combining in her playing an undiminished powerful technique with a noble sense of transcendence. Nothing is taken for granted. Everything should be fresh, born in the instant of playing, but strongly argued to give an air of inevitability. Mitsuko Uchida rethinks perpetually all she plays, putting the score in a subtle accord with both her profound feelings and robust knowledge. In Schubert, this is the way to achieve seductive and truly faithful accounts.