Track Listing

1. Piano Sonata In C Minor D 958
2. Piano Sonata In A Major D 959
3. Piano Sonata In B Flat Major D 960
4. Allegretto In C Minor D 915
5. Three Piano Pieces D 946

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177486 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-18
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Import

Album Details
The Originals series.

Customer Reviews

Pollini at his peak, and now in better sound
Dg went through a period of nasty sound in the early digital era, and no one suffered as much as Polini, largely because the piano brought out the edgy, glassy quality of digital. To my ears this Originals reissue of these classic Schubert performances has solved all the preceding problems, winding up with warm, easy-on-the-wears sound. (Amazon'a price is surely a mistake, though -- this is a midprice reissue, and they are charging considerably more than full price). So even if you own these two CDs separately, you may find it worthwhile to replace your old copies.

As for the performances, Pollini was never better than in these posed Schubert readings, which define the composer's piano music with as much personality and depth as Richter did. Of course, the two pianists are almost polar opposites, in that Pollini dazzles with technical command, approaching the music more objectively than Richter, who hardly lets a bar go by without feeling it in his own way. But by no means is Pollini cold; the great thing he's done here is to grasp the 'emotional intangibles' of Schubert's deceptively simple keyboard writing (to borrow a phrase from a reviewer below). By comparison, Brendel seems colorless and bland, Perahia correct but rather faceless. In short, Pollini's are my favorite recordings of all three sonatas.

well reviewed
3 out of three stars in the 2005/6 Penguin Guide.

Recommended recording in Rough Guide to Classical Music.

Available new for $25 from Arkiv Music, which has the rights from DG to burn this title on demand.

glorious music in magisterial performances
Maurizio Pollini is in fine form throughout these exemplary, magisterial, performances of Franz Schubert's "late" piano sonatas: C Minor (D 958), A Major (D 959), B Flat Major (D 960). As the excellent liner notes (Paolo Petazzi) accompanying the original (1987) Deutsche Grammophon release indicate, Schubert did most of his work on these pieces in September of 1828 (just after completing his famous String Quintet), clearly intended to form a single collection.

The virtues that are unique to Pollini: supreme technical facility, fastidious attention to form (shape and coherence of piece as a whole), scrupulous study of various editions of score, concert performances years in advance of recording- all come into play in these renditions of Schubert's glorious and darkly complex music.

Highest recommendation.