[.ca] Pno Son/3 Klavierstucke

Un Essentiel amazon.fr:
Mitsuko Uchida commence la dernière sonate de Schubert en partant de très loin. Le son est d'un pianissimo à peine audible, et s'amplifie progressivement. Son premier mouvement est très profond, malgré un toucher très léger, à fleur de piano. L'approche reste la même dans le deuxième mouvement, très lent, complètement intérieur. Le quatrième mouvement est très étrange, avec une main gauche presque mécanique et complètement distincte de la main droite. Très différente des autres grandes versions de la discographie, celle d'Uchida est très cohérente et, au final, très convaincante. Les trois Klavierstücke D 946, plus communs et moins convaincants d'un point de vue pianistique, sont d'une chaleur communicative : rythmiques, vifs, ils donnent une image plus légère de Schubert, qui contraste avec la douleur sans fond de la Sonate. -- Pierre Massé

From Amazon.co.uk:
This is a marvellous musical coupling: Schubert's overwhelmingly moving last Piano Sonata and the visionary set of pieces written a few months earlier. There are several outstanding performances of the Sonata currently available, including those of Schnabel, Lupu, and Curzon. For the Piano Pieces, the only performance of comparable stature in the current catalogues seems to be one by Kyoko Tabe (Denon), which has the same Sonata for coupling. Neither pianist is very heart-on-sleeve in any of this music, so if you want more overtly romantic Schubert, look elsewhere. But both Uchida and Tabe give us profoundly moving interpretations of all this music, each on such a high level that it's impossible to make a choice between them. I'd buy them both. --Leslie Gerber

Amazon.com essential recording:
This is a marvelous musical coupling: Schubert's overwhelmingly moving last Piano Sonata and the visionary set of pieces written a few months earlier. There are several outstanding performances of the Sonata currently available, including those of Schnabel, Lupu, and Curzon. For the Piano Pieces, the only performance of comparable stature in the current catalogs seems to be one by Kyoko Tabe (Denon), which has the same Sonata for coupling. Neither pianist is very heart-on-sleeve in any of this music, so if you want more overtly romantic Schubert, look elsewhere. But both Uchida and Tabe give us profoundly moving interpretations of all this music, each on such a high level that it's impossible to make a choice between them. I'd buy 'em both. --Leslie Gerber

Sound from another world:
The breath taking performance of Uchida's D960 opens the world without time. As once she puts it on interview that this sonata is floating and loosing sense of time. Opening phrases of her playing feels like mellow light coming down through sculptures from the top of the church where no one is there but one prayer. Pauses of her playing here and there forces us to look into dark black hole, which has no end. Uchida grasps structural layers better than any other rivals. Sensitivity of this performance is extreme that even the subtlest ears still fail to sense all of her nuances. She will take you to the different sphere of the world and its worth trip.

My favorite piano CD:
I've been through all the Beethoven piano sonatas, on CD and in concert, some many times, but was never as profoundly moved as when I only recently first heard the Schubert 960 in a local concert. The 22 minute first movement casts a heavenly spell. If you get only one Schubert piano sonata, this in the one. I've since collected and listened to most of them on CD(also by Uchida). The others are good to excellent, but the 960 is special. I also have the Brendel 2-CD set with the last three Schubert sonatas, which includes the 960 (also Philips). A great value and an excellent performance, but Uchida's is slightly better. More range of intensity.

Godawful:
This is probably the worst Schubert playing I've ever heard from a major pianist -- and I'm a fan of Uchida. Schubert played badly in the style of Brahms? What was she thinking? The banging and clanging and rubato stretched like taffy would be a parody of bad "romantic" piano playing if it wasn't unlistenable.

Distant and delicate:
If I were the recording engineer on this album, I would consider my job very well done...provided you had required me to place the mic's in another room down the hall for some reason. There is a critical mic distance beyond which you may not go, where the early reflections off the walls start to dominate the sound and this recording has clearly exceeded that. This doesn't mean the album is worthless, it's just more suitable for backgroud music, and will disappoint if what you wanted was to sit and listen attentively to a fine Schubert performance...it will be like you've been locked out of the concert hall and have to listen from the foyer.

A wonderfully insightful performance - excellent choice:
The final Schubert piano sonata has always fascinated me - I've been under it's spell for over 25 years and have collected many recordings. Some of my favorites tend towards the extreme in terms of tempo - both the Valery Afanassiev recording for ECM (live from the 1985 Lockenhaus Festival) and especially Richter's performance from the 1964 Aldeburgh Festival have opening movements even slower than Uchida's. (Uchida brings it in at 21"53", where Afanassiev takes 22:45 and Richter plays at an insanely self-absorbed 25:07.) Pollini, in a more "mainstream" performance on DG, is a veritable speed demon by comparison: 18:52. But it isn't the actual tempo that is important; it's the attention to detail, and there's much to hear in this performance. At approximately halfway through the first movement, just before the development, time almost stops and we're suspended in awe before returning to a gentle landing in a more moderate approach. Listen especially to the passage from 14:30 to 15:15: if you want to hear the difference between pianissimo, pp, and ppp, they're all demonstrated with grace and fluidity. No gazing despondently into the abyss here, but a wistful, eloquent reading. The recording itself is a bit "blended" for my taste - not as sharp (maybe "brittle" is the word?)as I'd like it to be, but again, perfectly acceptable and more a matter of taste. This is a warmer, more diffuse sound than on many other recordings I've heard, and although you don't lose any notes, they aren't as "highlighted" as some. This doesn't displace the Richter as my *favorite* performance, but then again, I've listened to that one for years and years. But this is certainly VERY highly recommendable as a first recording to own, and I know that I'll be listening to it many times for it's own special qualities.

• Piano Sonata No. 21 In B Flat, D. 960: Molto moderato
• Piano Sonata No. 21 In B Flat, D. 960: Andante sostenuto
• Piano Sonata No. 21 In B Flat, D. 960: Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza
• Piano Sonata No. 21 In B Flat, D. 960: Allegro ma non troppo
• 3 Klavierstücke, D. 946: No. 1 In E Flat Minor - Allegro assai
• 3 Klavierstücke, D. 946: No. 2 In E Flat - Allegretto
• 3 Klavierstücke, D. 946: No. 3 In C - Allegro