Schubert
Sonatas & Impromptus
Sir András Schiff p
ECM 4817252 (2CD)

Instrumental Recording of the Year

Sir András Schiff’s born again Schubert guarantees impromtu revelations aplenty

Schubert has always been very close to my heart. the Klavierstücke, and the Impromptus were part of my student years. Of course, the last sonatas came much later, they are not really for children. – Sir András Schiff

András Schiff’s purchase of a fortepiano in 2010 transformed a long-held fascination with the instrument into a full-blown love affair that has blossomed into admired recordings of Beethoven and Schubert, to whose late piano sonatas he returns on disc. He’s playing no ordinary fortepiano: a Franz Brodmann model dating from around 1820 – perfect for late Schubert – it once belonged to Karl I, the optimistically titled last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Schiff describes it as having “something quintessentially Viennese in its...