Yuja Wang SONATAS & ETUDES Chopin / Scriabin / Liszt / Ligeti

"I'm not sure about the Wang part," says Yuja Wang. "Half of China is called Wang. Often I think I'd prefer just to be called Yuja." She tilts her head and laughs. Yuja's laugh seems twice as big as she is. Her diminutive hands can also stretch double the distance that ought to be anatomically possible. There are many anomalies about this young musician. "Tradition?" she asks. "I think it's basically just a teacher who has a bunch of students, and they teach other students. I don't know. No, wait a moment. I think tradition is really a Jungian archetype. Everyone somehow unconsciously knows that there is something that must be done with a piece or in life. It's collective."

Yuja Wang looks fragile, but exudes strength. She combines politeness with confidence, and an ability to listen with impish humour. She has a habit of taking the conversation through unexpected twists. Google Yuja (or Yujia) Wang, and you'll find her on "You Tube" in white frills and flower hair-clips, looking as if she should be in kindergarten, playing Chopin and Liszt with dreamy, clean-cut perfection. That was just a decade ago. Where on earth did the Jungian archetypes come in?

Perhaps she would opine that they had been there all along, but Yuja Wang traces her interest in German philosophy back to her solitary arrival as a 14-year-old in Canada, and the commencement of her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia the following year. "It's a very different culture of music education," she explains. "In China, I was very sure that if I did exactly what my teacher told me to do, I'd be good. But in Canada and the US, nobody told me what to do any more. It became like an investigative process, like detective work. So if I played Liszt, I would read Goethe's Faust and listen to Wagner operas. I'd go to museums. I'm trying to get the cultural background into my subconscious, so that maybe some of it will rub off." (Shirley Apthorp)

Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)
Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.35
1) 1. Grave - Doppio movimento [7:50]
2) 2. Scherzo - Più lento - Tempo I [6:49]
3) 3. Marche funèbre (Lento) [8:25]
4) 4. Finale (Presto) [1:28]

György Ligeti (1923 - 2006)
6 etudes pour piano, premier livre
5) Etude n 4-Fanfares [3:40]

Alexander Scriabin (1872 - 1915)
Piano Sonata No.2, in G sharp minor op.19 "Sonata Fantasy"
6) 1. Andante [8:18]
7) 2. Presto [4:02]

György Ligeti (1923 - 2006)
8) Etude No.10 "Der Zauberlehring" [2:15]

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886)
Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178
9) Lento assai - Allegro energico - Grandioso-Recitativo [12:24]
10) Andante sostenuto [7:45]
11) Allegro energico - Andante sostenuto - Lento assai [11:04]

Yuja Wang

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

477 8140 0 GH

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Augustin Dumay / Maria João Pires BEETHOVEN Complete Violin Sonatas

Every track on this set shows Maria João Pires and Augustin Dumay’s well-established rapport that makes it second nature for them to follow one another; as a consequence the performances have a natural flow, sounding flexible and spontaneous. Their involvement with the music is equally striking, and they have distinct ideas about how every movement, every section, should go; there’s not a dull bar on any of the CDs. They’re very well recorded, and make much of the music sound very beautiful.
Readers will sense a ‘but’ coming, yet I’d first like to stress how fine most of the playing is – the whole of Op 96, for example, where in the first movement the serene motion and perfectly blended sound produce an almost hypnotic effect. Op 12 No 2 is another sensitive, well-considered interpretation, and there are many splendid movements: for example the Adagio cantabile of Op 30 No 2, a model of beautifully phrased lyrical playing, or the refined, highly expressive variations in the Kreutzer Sonata.
In other places, though, the purist in me is up in arms. I’d grant that even Beethoven’s notes, slurs and dynamics don’t have the force of holy writ, but he did take the trouble to give his interpreters a lot of very precise directions. It’s Dumay who is the main culprit, adding extra notes to make double stops (Op 30 No 2 first movement, Op 30 No 3 finale) and on numerous occasions omitting or changing slurs, elongating short notes or changing dynamics. There’s one whole passage in the finale of Op 23, marked piano by Beethoven, which Dumay and Pires perform forte.
Some of the alterations are, I’ll admit, strikingly effective, but it seems to me that the best Beethoven performances take notice of all the clues and then make it all sound spontaneous and ‘meant’. This is how Rudolf Serkin and Adolf Busch proceed in the Adagio of Op 12 No 3; Pires and Dumay, however, don’t preserve the distinction Beethoven makes between ‘ordinary’ dotted rhythms and the sharper, more energetic double dots, sacrificing some of the music’s breadth and nobility.
You may not be as bothered as I am by these liberties, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate the finesse and communicative power of the performances. And even when, as in the quiet, restrained Adagio of Op 30 No 1, Dumay and Pires present an unusual view of the music, the beauty of the playing is extremely persuasive. (Duncan Druce)

CD 1:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in D, Op.12 No.1
1) 1. Allegro con brio [8:43]
2) 2. Tema con variazioni (Andante con moto) [6:57]
3) 3. Rondo (Allegro) [4:47]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 in A, Op.12 No.2
4) 1. Allegro vivace [6:40]
5) 2. Andante più tosto allegretto [5:16]
6) 3. Allegro piacevole [4:57]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.4 in A minor, Op.23
7) 1. Presto [7:14]
8) 2. Andante scherzoso, più allegretto [7:40]
9) 3. Allegro molto [5:19]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.3 in E flat, Op.12 No.3
10) 1. Allegro con spirito [8:25]
11) 2. Adagio con molt'espressione [6:28]
12) 3. Rondo (Allegro molto) [4:35]

CD 2:
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.8 in G, Op.30 No.3
1) 1. Allegro assai [6:00]
2) 2. Tempo di minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso [7:49]
3) 3. Allegro vivace [3:25]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.5 in F, Op.24 - "Spring"
4) 1. Allegro [9:46]
5) 2. Adagio molto espressivo [6:13]
6) 3. Scherzo (Allegro molto) [1:14]
7) 4. Rondo (Allegro ma non troppo) [6:33]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.9 in A, Op.47 - "Kreutzer"
8) 1. Adagio sostenuto - Presto [14:29]
9) 2. Andante con variazioni [15:25]
10) 3. Finale (Presto) [8:33]

CD 3:
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.10 in G, Op.96
1) 1. Allegro moderato [10:15]
2) 2. Adagio espressivo [6:03]
3) 3. Scherzo (Allegro) [2:04]
4) 4. Poco allegretto [8:57]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.6 in A, Op.30 No.1
5) 1. Allegro [7:22]
6) 2. Adagio [6:36]
7) 3. Allegretto con variazioni [8:35]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.7 in C minor, Op.30 No.2
8) 1. Allegro con brio [7:31]
9) 2. Adagio cantabile [9:00]
10) 3. Scherzo (Allegro) [3:23]
11) 4. Finale (Allegro) [5:06]

Augustin Dumay, violin

Maria João Pires, piano

2002 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
3 Compact Discs
471 4952 1 GH 3

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LA Philharmonic MINIMALIST JUKEBOX

Grand historical pronouncements are always dangerous and especially so in the arts, where tastes and value judgments can often turn upside down from generation to generation. For a sober reminder we need only to look at how, in the immediate years after his death, J.S. Bach was held in such low esteem by educated listeners. What one generation might consider fussy and needlessly ornate a succeeding generation can rediscover as endlessly inventive and profoundly meaningful.
“Minimalism” as an aesthetic credo came of age during the 1960s and flourished in its purest forms for roughly 15 years. Defining it as a method or procedure depends on which “Minimalism” you’re referring to. In architecture, painting, and sculpture it can be seen as a cool, formalist rejection of the hot emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism. The human messiness of those heroic canvasses of the ’50s is now replaced by clean lines, sharp angles, and fastidiously measured proportions. Distance, objectivity, and irony are at the fore. The artist’s “feelings” are subsumed in the rigor of the construction. A similar impetus toward reduction and clarity of expression characterizes literary Minimalism. In the work of Donald Barthelme, for example, description and expression have been boiled down almost to haiku-sized forms, and here too irony abounds. With the gift of hindsight we can see that this kind of Minimalism was a natural progression of the tendencies of high Modernism. As far back as the 1920s with the Bauhaus School of design and with Hindemith’s and Stravinsky’s Neoclassicism we can witness a trend toward “stripping down” and “purification” of elements and expression. One can even go back to the turn of the century and see the beginnings of what would become the Minimalist aesthetic in the work of the Viennese architect Adolf Loos with its hatred of ornament, or in the hyperexpressive musical minatures of Anton Webern.
But not all the arts share the same idea of what it means to be “minimal.” A pixillated painting by Chuck Close, a geometric modular sculpture by Sol Lewitt, a formally exact Lucinda Childs dance piece, or the uncluttered lines of Richard Meyer’s Getty Museum may all be textbook cases of the term, but each involves a very different take on the aesthetic. Even more different is the musical Minimalism which came to our attention in the early works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass some 35 years ago. This musical version was branded “Minimalist” more for convenience than for accuracy, and we’ve come to live with the association only with a sense of frustration at how inadequate and misleading the term “minimal” is when applied to music that is so full of expression and affords us such pure delight.
Minimalism in music actually shares very little with its counterparts in other art forms beyond a desire to clarify and simplify both materials and expression. Whatever influence Minimalism has enjoyed in the plastic arts, dance, and literature, its musical manifestation heralded a profound and wideranging effect on the course of Western art music. And its effect on popular music has also been palpable. (John Adams)

Arvo Pärt (1935 -)

Tabula Rasa

1) Ludus

2) Silentium

Louis Andriessen (1939 -)

4) Racconto dall’Inferno (U.S. premiere)

5) De Staat (The Republic)

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
Cristina Zavalloni, mezzo-soprano
Geoff Nuttall, Barry Shiffman, violins
Synergy Vocals :
Amanda Morrison, Rowan Fenner, Claire Underwood, Sarah Simmonds

2006 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

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Handel ALCINA

It's a pleasure to have such an abundance of excellent recordings of Handel operas that were long virtually unknown or available on CD in a single version, if at all. Alan Curtis' stellar recording of "Alcina," which joins a respectable number of very fine recordings of the opera, is remarkable for the supple liveliness of his conducting and the outstanding performances of the soloists. The elasticity of his performance, leading Il Complesso Barocco, should dispel any misconceptions about Baroque music being rigid and metronomic. The nuanced care with which he brings out the emotional depth of Handel's writing is evident from the first measures of the overture and enlivens the entire opera. The opera is one of Handel's strongest, both in its sensuous, endlessly inventive music, and in the coherence and emotional complexity of its libretto, taken by an anonymous writer from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," the source of many operas of the era, and Curtis and the singers give it fiery dramatic urgency. The soloists assembled here, veterans of Baroque opera, perform with assurance and fluent familiarity with the style. The intelligence and emotional rightness of their ornamentation in the da capo arias is especially impressive, and they handle the florid pyrotechnics with polish and an engaging sense of spontaneity. Joyce DiDonato is stunning in the title role, with the intensity of a force of nature, and Maite Beaumont as Ruggiero and Karina Gauvin as Morgana are no less impressive. The women who are less well known, Sonia Prina and Laura Cherici, are just as astonishing in their virtuosity and the consistent purity and beauty of their tone quality; these are singers to watch out for. Bass Vito Priante sings with comparable effectiveness, but tenor Kobie van Rensburg doesn't quite have the ideal vocal heft for his role, although otherwise his performance is exemplary. The sound is immaculate and clean and intensely present. This version of "Alcina" should delight fans of Baroque opera and might even make converts of opera lovers who have never warmed to this repertoire. (Stephen Eddins)

CD 1:
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)

Alcina
Overture
1) Overture [3:15]
2) Musette [1:04]
3) Menuet [0:58]
Act 1
4) Oh Dei! Quivi non scorgo [1:03]
5) O s'apre al riso [5:21]
6) Questo è il cielo de' contenti [2:22]
7) Gavotte [0:59]
8) Sarabande [1:15]
9) Gavotte da capo [0:37]
10) Menuett [1:42]
11) Gavotte [0:50]
12) Ecco l'infido [1:05]
13) Di' cor mio, quanto t'amai [7:17]
14) Generosi guerrier, deh [0:48]
15) Chi m'insegna il caro padre [3:03]
16) Mi ravvisi, Ruggier [0:48]
17) Di te mi rido, semplice stolto [4:33]
18) Qua dunque [0:39]
19) È gelosia, forza è d'amore [3:52]
20) Io dunque [1:08]
21) Bramo di trionfar [6:45]
22) La cerco invano [1:06]
23) Semplicetto! a donna credi? [5:59]
24) Ah, infedele, infedel! [1:34]
25) Si, son quella, non più bella [6:29]
26) Se nemico mi fossi [0:51]
27) La bocca vaga [4:53]
28) A quai strani perigli [0:57]
29) Tornami a vagheggiar [5:12]

CD 2:
Act 2
1) Col celarvi a chi v'ama un momento [2:31]
2) Qual portento mi richiama [2:32]
3) Pensa a chi geme [5:06]
4) Qual odio [1:12]
5) Vorrei vendicarmi del perfido cor [4:06]
6) Chi scuopre al mio pensiero [0:17]
7) Mi lusinga il dolce affetto [6:47]
8) S'acquieti il rio sospetto [1:08]
9) Ama, sospira, ma non t'offende [7:08]
10) Non scorgo [0:54]
11) Mio bel tesoro [6:03]
12) Regina, io cerco in vano [0:59]
13) Tra speme e timore [3:44]
14) Regina, sei tradita! [0:34]
15) Ah! mio cor! schemito sei! [9:31]
16) Or, che dici [0:53]
17) E' un folle, è un vil affetto [3:57]
18) Ed è ver che mi narri? [1:24]
19) Verdi prati [4:07]
20) Ah! Ruggiero crudel, tu non mi amasti! [2:40]
21) Ombre pallide, lo so, mi udite [6:41]

CD 3:
Act 3
1) Sinfonia [0:48]
2) Voglio amare [1:10]
3) Credete al mio dolore [7:43]
4) M'inganna, me n'avveggo [0:23]
5) Un momento di contento [4:07]
6) Molestissimo [1:09]
7) Ma quando tornerai [4:19]
8) Tutta d'armate squadre [0:33]
9) Sta nell'Ircana pietrosa tana [5:56]
10) Vanne tu seco ancora [0:18]
11) All'alma fedel [3:10]
12) Niuna forza [0:44]
13) Mi restano le lagrime [6:47]
14) Sin per le vie [0:45]
15) Già vicino è'l momento [1:18]
16) Barbara! io ben lo so [2:56]
17) Le lusinghe [0:41]
18) Non è amor, né gelosia [5:13]
19 Prendi, e vivi.Ruggiero vuol la tua libertà [0:57]
20 Dall'orror [1:46]
21) Entrée [2:08]
22) Tamburino [1:03]
23) Dopo tante amare pene [0:40]

Joyce DiDonato
Karina Gauvin
Laura Cherici
Maite Beaumont
Sonia Prina
Kobie van Rensburg
Vito Priante
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
ARCHIV Produktion
3 Compact Discs
477 7374 AH3

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas D537 & D664 / German Dances

When we come to look back over it, agreement will be widespread, I’ve no doubt, that Uchida’s has amounted to a distinguished series, some of it among the best Schubert on the piano there has ever been. And I guess parts of it will continue to divide people. This last instalment is characteristic of her: highly inflected, even in the German Dances, every note thought about, the detail wonderfully wrought, the sovereign pianism and sound at the service of expression that has been felt, lived through, made quite personal. I do like that kind of Schubert playing, one to one, essentially intimate, which entices you to make a journey with a spellbinding guide who has a vision she wants you to share.
Only the finest Schubert pianists find their way to Uchida’s rhythmic control, enabling her to project the impression of a consistent tempo in a sonata movement while in fact there may be several, the changes nearly imperceptible as they follow the demands of the incident. Sample the outer movements of the A minor Sonata, D537, for this, which are thrillingly eventful. In the A major Sonata, D664, perhaps less fully achieved, her nerviness sometimes creates a restlessness at odds with its Biedermeier world.
More contentious certainly will be her treatment of the two sets of Deutsche Tänze, particularly the bigger one, D790, where reverie, yearning and laborious tenderness tend to smother the spirit of the dance – as they get slower and slower I long for daylight and fresh air. But when I like Uchida in Schubert I like her enormously; these fine recordings of her, in the Musikverein in Vienna, are part of the attraction. (Stephen Plaisto)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Piano Sonata in A minor, D537

1) I. Allegro ma non troppo (7:31)

2) II. Allegretto quasi Andantino (7:46)

3) III. Allegro vivace (4:48)

6 German Dances, D820

4) I. Tempo giusto: A flat major (0:51)

5) II. A flat major (1:34)

6) III. A flat major (1:37)

7) IV. B flat major (1:02)

8) V. B flat major (1:25)

9) VI. Ligato: B flat major (2:02)

Piano Sonata in A major, D664

10) I. Allegro moderato (8:05)

11) II. Andante (4:02)

12) III. Allegro (7:14)

12 German Dances (Ländler), D790

13) I. D major (1:58)

14) II. A major (1:05)

15) III. D major (0:58)

16) IV. D major (0:54)

17) V. B minor (1:32)

18) VI. G sharp minor (1:11)

19) VII. A flat major (1:21)

20) VIII. A flat minor (1:31)

21) IX. B major (0:50)

22) X. B major (0:58)

23) XI. A flat major (1:07)

24) XII. E major (1:48)

Mitsuko Uchida

2002 Decca Music Group Limited

1 CD DDD

PHILIPS 470 265-2 PH

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonata D568 / 6 Moments musicaux, D780

This is the penultimate issue in Mitsuko Uchida’s eight-CD series, and thanks to her magical recreation of the E flat Sonata I’m already inclined to regard it as one of the best. Let me not make an exaggerated claim for the piece: it comes near the beginning of Schubert’s 12 completed piano sonatas, and the later ones are of course played more often because they’re greater. But this one is an enchantment, and weighing in at 31 minutes, as it does here, it sits proudly as the first of his grand four-movement sonatas, fully achieved and characteristic, purposeful and confident in the space it makes for itself.
It is subtler in its expression, too, than some commentators would have us believe, with the sunny disposition of its outer movements being constantly inflected and made more attractive by passing inflections and local areas of darker harmonic colour. The journey through it is delightful, with lots of incident. The Menuetto third movement was an addition after Schubert reworked his three-movement original which was in D flat major, a tone lower.
How characteristic of Uchida to make you want to celebrate the music, first of all. She inhabits it completely, and her preferred Steinway for Schubert, and this recording of it – at the Musikverein in Vienna, in the main auditorium – are at one with her endeavour, perfectly judged in what they bring to it, part of the focus. In the Sonata I would not have anything different. In the Moments musicaux, however, it is possible to question the weight with which almost every phrase and paragraph are invested – perhaps some of the rhythmic freedom too – while being carried through by the power of Uchida’s vision and her technical control. Carried through, yes, but borne along? This is magnificent playing and I submit willingly and with wonderment to a presentation of these pieces with a richly detailed ‘interior’ quality and a proto-Mahlerian panoply of sound.
But to enjoy her to the full you do have to accept Uchida’s slow tempi and to a projection of the expression which is painstaking to the point (some might feel) of laboriousness, especially with all the repeats. Nearly a quarter-of-an-hour has gone by before we get to No 3, the ‘Air russe’, and No 6, the last of the cycle, lasts not far short of 11 minutes. C’est bon, mais c’est long. It is spellbinding, but I do find myself missing, by the end, the kind of lyrical impulse that is delivered on the breath and touches you swiftly and directly. No singer could push Schubert as far as Uchida does – but so what? A stunning record nonetheless, and perhaps one to feel quite possessive about. (Stephen Plaistow)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Piano Sonata No.7 in E flat, D. 568
1. Allegro moderato [9:33]
2. Andante molto [7:21]
3. Menuetto (Allegretto) [5:01]
4. Allegro moderato [9:13]
6 Moments musicaux, Op.94 D.780
No.1 in C (Moderato) [7:02]
No.2 in A flat (Andantino) [7:18]
No.3 in F minor (Allegro moderato) [1:48]
No.4 in C sharp minor (Moderato) [6:45]
No.5 in F minor (Allegro vivace) [2:28]
No.6 in A flat (Allegretto) [10:49]

Mitsuko Uchida

2001 PHILIPS Classics

1 CD DDD

470 164-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas D.845 & D.575

This is the sixth recording of Mitsuko Uchida's cycle of Schubert piano sonatas - and these performances certainly have an air of occasion about them. In both sonatas, Uchida's tempos tend to be slow, her colours dark, her pacing sombre and meditative. The Schubert scholar John Reed has noted that the little opening motif of the D845 Sonata bears a resemblance to Schubert's song Totengrabers Heimweh, and Uchida seems to be staring into the grave itself. Her bare octaves move where angels fear to tread, with stark, staring chords in the sharpest of contrasts. Taking three minutes longer than Brendel in the opening movement, Uchida digs where he drums; rhythms beat on the brain, menacing rather than confident in their energy.
Compared with both Brendel's lucid lyricism, and the lambent, old-world gentility of Schiff's slow movement, Uchida's is more withdrawn, more self-conscious in its opening anacrusis and in its hesitant rubato. And her third-movement Trio is so drawn-back that one barely feels the relationship of pulse to that of the Scherzo.
For the earlier D575 Sonata, Uchida opens again with short, sharp, heel-clicking chords, this time answering bleak single notes. The remoteness of Schubert's harmonic keys really bites here: Uchida is fierce where Schiff is firm. And again, tempos reveal broad, long-pondered phrasing: Uchida's Andante, hauntingly private in its steady simplicity of movement, is racked by Schubert's violent major/minor contrasts.
The third movement, a full minute longer than Schiff's, almost loses any sense of being a Scherzo at all: it is more of a gently somnolent intermezzo, its shy little oscillating three-note figure rocking into a Landler which resonates in the consciousness even when the sonata itself is over.(David Fanning)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Piano Sonata No.16 in A minor, D.845
1) 1. Moderato [13:29]
2) 2. Andante, poco mosso [11:41]
3) 3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) - Trio (Un poco più lento) [7:32]
4) 4. Rondo (Allegro vivace) [4:58]
Piano Sonata No.9 in B, D.575
5) 1. Allegro ma non troppo [8:01]
6) 2. Andante [6:00]
7) 3. Scherzo (Allegretto) [6:23]
8) 4. Allegro giusto [5:39]

Mitsuko Uchida

2000 PHILIPS Classics

1 CD DDD

462 596-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas in D major, D850 & A minor, D784

Mitsuko Uchida’s Schubert is never less than wonderfully finished in pianistic terms, and as an interpretation it is only occasionally a little disappointing. In these two latest sonatas she is close to her best. The D major, a product of the composer’s extended summer tour in Austria in 1825, is, as Misha Donat’s essay notes, ‘among Schubert’s sonatas … the most brilliant and extrovert’. With her exceptional finger technique Uchida is able to take its technical demands in her stride (there are several renowned Schubertians of whom this much cannot be said), yet she never allows physical excitement to become the be-all-and-end-all. She finds playfulness in the contrasting themes of the first movement, and handles the song-like writing of the second and fourth with the expertise of a great Lieder accompanist, each phrase being subtly inflected yet never to the detriment of the long line. To my mind, however, the horn-call-based second theme in the slow movement sounds a little over-excited and more than a little over-pedalled. But when it and the main theme of the movement are superimposed on the final page, Uchida’s tone becomes fabulously well graded. Most memorable of all are the half tones she deploys in the third movement Trio and the exceptional delicacy and refinement of her passagework in the finale.
In the A minor Sonata she brings out the world-weariness of the first movement, the fragile hopefulness of the Andante, and the seething energy of the finale. The contrasting martial theme in the first movement once again finds her a fraction over-excitable, momentarily damaging the broader rhythmic flow on which the power of Schubert’s structures crucially depends. Nor does the difficult finale coda sweep all before it in the exultant way of a Richter.
The two listed comparisons show Richter on peak form, in the D major sonata from Moscow in 1956, and the A minor from Tokyo in 1979. Everything he does seems to have deeper roots and to be carried forward by an even stronger artistic imperative than Uchida’s, so that he does not need to resort to her occasionally rather calculated-seeming hesitations in order to convince. These also happen to be among the better-recorded items in the hugely variable Richter legacy.
But for an alternative in rich modern sound, Uchida remains a good bet. As before she uses a 1962 Steinway, which is just about ideal for Schubert. Once again the recordings, from the Vienna Musikverein, verge on the over-resonant; but in this instance they detract hardly at all from the music or the playing.' (David Fanning)

Franz Schubert (1797 -1828)
Piano Sonata in D major, D.850
1) 1. Allegro (vivace) (8:37)
2) 2. Con moto (11:55)
3) 3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace - Trio (9:09)
4) 4. Rondo: Allegro moderato (8:29)
Piano Sonata in A minor, D.784
5) 1. Allegro giusto (14:06)
6) 2. Andante (4:08)
7) 3. Allegro vivace (5:23)

Mitsuko Uchida

2000 Philips Classics
1 CD DDD
464 480-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas D958 & D959

These two sonatas are full of that cosmic, timeless sadness that's such a feature of Schubert's last works. Mitsuko Uchida clearly identifies with their expressive intensity, and proves herself responsive to every melodic and harmonic twinge. Indeed, some might find her a bit hyperactive in her shaping of Schubert's exquisite melodies, particularly in such places as the C-minor Sonata's second subject. But there's no doubting her commitment to the music, or the poetry that imbues everything that she does with it. Ultimately, if you let her carry you along, you'll be captivated. (David Hurwitz)

"...[Mitsuko Uchida's] reading of the C-minor work is a powerful recreation of music haunted by the presence of Beethoven. This music drives inexorably forward, only occasionally tempered by that brand of melting lyricism that seemed unique to Schubert...This is a remarkable performance that is worth comparison with any in the catalog...The recording was made in the sonic splendor of Vienna's Musikvereinsaal and is up to the high standards of the house...A triumph." (Linkowski, ARG)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Piano Sonata No.19 in C minor, D.958
1. Allegro [10:21]
2. Adagio [8:40]
3. Menuetto (Allegro) [3:38]
4. Allegro [8:13]
Piano Sonata No.20 in A, D.959
1. Allegro [15:31]
2. Andantino [8:48]
3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) [5:16]
4. Rondo (Allegretto) [12:00]

Mitsuko Uchida

1998 PHILIPS Classics
1 CD DDD
456 579-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonata D. 960 / 3 Klavierstücke D. 946

“It sometimes seems to me as if I did not belong to this world at all.” These alleged words of Schubert kept coming to mind as I listened to Mitsuko Uchida’s absorbed, deeply poetic reading of the B flat Sonata. At 21'53'' (including exposition repeat) and 10'40'' respectively; here and there, especially in the long-drawn-out closing theme of the first-movement exposition (from 4'17'') and the lingering upbeats of the Andante’s melody, pliancy may come dangerously close to stasis. But Uchida’s concentration and inwardness are of a rare order. No pianist makes you so aware how much of the first two movements is marked pp or even ppp; and none conjures such subtlety of colour in the softest dynamics: listen, for instance, to her playing of the three unearthly C sharp minor chords that usher in the first-movement development (10'55''), or her timing and colouring of the breathtaking sideslip from C sharp minor to C major in the Andante (7'24''). Other pianists, especially Kovacevich, may find a stronger undercurrent of foreboding or desperation in these two movements – though Uchida builds the development of the initial Molto moderato superbly to its dramatic climax. But none probes more hauntingly the music’s mysterious contemplative ecstasy or creates such a sense of inspired improvisation. And her limpid cantabile sonorities are always ravishing on the ear.
Uchida is equally attuned to the less rarefied world of the Scherzo and finale, the former a glistening, mercurial dance, con delicatezza indeed, the latter graceful and quixotic, with a hint of emotional ambiguity even in its ostensibly cheerful main theme and a tigerish ferocity in its sudden Beethovenian eruptions. The coupling is generous: the three Klavierstucke, D946, composed, like the sonata, in Schubert’s final year, 1828, and assembled by Brahms for publication. Perhaps Uchida, with her expressive underlinings and lovingly shaded cadences, is a touch winsome in the gentle 6/8 Allegretto that opens the E flat, No. 2: as occasionally in the sonata, I would have liked greater simplicity here. But she brings a wonderfully impassioned sweep, with razor-sharp rhythms, to the opening of the E flat minor, No. 1, and mesmerically floats its slow B major episode (from 1'17''). Like Maria Joao Pires on her recent DG recording (6/98) Uchida also restores the beguiling barcarolle-like episode in A flat that Schubert excised from his autograph manuscript.
The recording finely captures Uchida’s subtle, pellucid sound world. In sum, a revealing disc from a Schubertian of rare insight and spirituality.' (Richard Wigmore)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D.960
1) 1. Molto moderato (21:53)
2) 2. Andante sostenuto (10:40)
3) 3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza (3:56)
4) 4. Allegro ma non troppo (8:01)
3 Klavierstücke, D.946
5) No. 1 in E flat minor (9:31)
6) No. 2 in E flat (10:32)
7) No. 3 in C (5:43)

Mitsuko Uchida

1998 Philips Classics
1 CD DDD
456 572-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Impromptus Op. 90 & Op. 142

I doubt whether this is going to join my three or four preferred recordings of all time of these pieces – I’m still pondering some reservations – but in this anniversary year we’re unlikely to be given a version of the Impromptus more ingratiating and lyrically lovely. It has mettle as well; Uchida is too intelligent an artist to risk allowing the directional force of Schubert to run down, even when he’s in a wandering mood; and she knows that he’s much more than a lyricist. The first numbers of each of these sets of four pieces – the most extended and elaborate as compositions – are carried through with great sureness for their dramatic quality as narratives. You notice in particular how well considered her interpretations are when she allows a passage to move on, sometimes quite freely, where less interesting players would have lingered or remained strictly in tempo.
There’s something about the recording, however, which doesn’t ring completely true. To be a little cruel, if you took against it you might describe it as designer-Schubert, a projection of ravishingly beautiful playing on a beautiful piano in sensuously beautiful sound – a product with a mission to melt the hardest heart. Well, dip into the loveliness at the beginning of the G flat major Impromptu (track 3). You cannot deny that the quality there is absolutely in place. But elsewhere I’m not so sure. The sonorities tend to spread, as if they’ve been artificially enhanced (for example, at the end of track 2, in the final chord). When I called this an ingratiating version of the Impromptus I meant that as a compliment, but the effect it sometimes has is of wanting to be liked a little too much. It comes at you with knobs on.
Recording and playing are of a piece. With Uchida, I never feel that it is anyone other than Schubert speaking, but for long stretches she does make him ever so wistful. His messages reach us as if from a long way off; my preference, more of the time, is for Schubert presented as a man of flesh and blood. And, in general, for more simplicity of manner. She is a player who is forever doing something, and once in a while she alights on a detail (a staccato dot on a bass note, for example) and seems to me to make too much of it. Dynamics too. The upbeat B flat at the start of the second Impromptu (track 2) is too soft (and second time round, barely audible); and surely it’s enough for a forte contrast to be strong, in the context of what has gone before, rather than unnerving (second Impromptu of the second set, track 6).
But my reaction to moments of self-consciousness, as I see them, mustn’t obscure my main impression of much delightful listening. Uchida is a Schubertian of class, and the last pieces of each set (tracks 4 and 8) show her at her best. In the one, the Allegretto tempo is spot on, and what a difference that makes; in the other, a scherzando number, she meets its calls for character and virtuosity with tremendous zest – and the flight from top to bottom of the instrument with which she rounds it off one will not hear bettered.' (Stephen Plaistow)


Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Impromptus, Op.90, D.899
1. No.1 in C minor: Allegro molto moderato [9:33]
2. No.2 in E flat: Allegro [4:42]
3. No.3 in G flat: Andante [5:37]
4. No.4 in A flat: Allegretto [8:04]
Impromptus Op.142, D.935
5. No.1 in F minor: Allegro moderato [10:57]
6. No.2 in A flat: Allegretto [8:00]
7. No.3 in B flat: Theme (Andante) with Variations [11:57]
8. No.4 in F minor: Allegro scherzando [6:33]

Mitsuko Uchida

1997 Philips Classics
1 CD DDD
456 245-2

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Mitsuko Uchida SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas D. 840 & 894

Schubert’s G major Sonata, D894, written in the autumn of 1826, is the ultimate Fruhlingstraum. Pervading the entire work, though played out particularly eloquently in the structure of its first movement, is that oscillation between light-filled dream and stark waking reality. These may be juxtaposed in dramatic motivic contrast, but they are, quintessentially, twin sides of a single consciousness; and it is Mitsuko Uchida’s supreme achievement to understand and re-create precisely this quality. Brendel, of course, knows it too: like him, Uchida creates a true opening molto moderato of profound stillness and long distances. Chords really resonate and breathe out, yet her quick intakes of breath as the second subject steps into dance are tempered with the more flexible, whimsical intimacy of a Schiff. Uchida’s gentleness of touch is ballasted by a firmly delineated bass and a weight of rhythmic articulation (10'10'' on) equal to Brendel’s, though actually surpassing him in resonance. For her, Schubert’s heart of darkness beats frighteningly strongly.
She finds an easy, instinctive pace for the Andante creating, again as part of an organically unified vision, fiercely compacted shocks in the ringing chords of its minor-key episodes. These chords announce a Menuetto in which the Trio slinks in as the merest spectre of a Landler (surely to make a deep imprint on Mahler’s spirit), and leads to a finale in which Uchida, uniquely, creates a dance of the spirit within a deep inner stillness.
The Relique Sonata, D840, one of Schubert’s great and tantalizingly unfinished works, sounds entire, fully achieved in Uchida’s hands. She shares with Schiff a leisured and long-pondered playing-out of the first movement in its strong rhythmic unity – a quite different response from the urgent, less ‘private’ playing of Brendel here. And her Andante is no less intimate in its bel canto of minute nuance and inflexion, starker and bleaker still than Schiff’s masterpiece.' (Hilary Finch)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) Piano Sonata No. 15 in C, D. 840 "Reliquie"
1) 1. Moderato [17:42]
2) 2. Andante [11:09]
Piano Sonata No. 18 in G, Op. 78, D. 894
3) 1. Molto moderato e cantabile [18:28]
4) 2. Andante [8:03]

5) 3. Menuetto. Allegro moderato [4:48]
6) 4. Allegretto [8:58]

Mitsuko Uchida

1997 Philips Classics
1 CD DDD
454 453-2 PH

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PASSWORD: elhenry.MusicIsTheKey