November 15, 2021
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Two Massive Schubert Sonatas in Compelling Performances
Schubert: Piano Sonatas D. 850 & D. 960
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano.
Bridge 9550 A/B
Disc One: Total Time: 39:35
Disc Two: Total Time: 43:28
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****Schubert’s piano sonatas are fascinating works that merge the sublimity of Mozart with an increasing Romantic passion found in Beethoven’s works in the genre. They may be less intense in that way, but Schubert’s lyricism and harmonic language are what often make the pieces attractive. For this recent release, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott has chosen to of the larger sonatas, stretched to near-symphonic length. Schubert was a quite competent pianist himself, but not of the growing virtuoso variety that were appearing as the 19th Century was underway. His performances tended to be in more intimate salon settings which lent their own aura to the music.
When the energy burst forth in his D-Major sonata, D. 850 (1825), one is at first caught off guard. This is a rather fast-paced, and technically-challenging “Allegro” belying its composition for the virtuoso pianist Karl Maria von Bocklet (the dedicatee also named on the 1826 publication). McDermott’s performance lends an immediacy to the music with crisp articulation that gives the music a further sense of forward motion. In the second movement, she moves things along well taking some time at cadences for a little romantic dalliance before moving on in the set of rondo-variations here which gradually fade away. The scherzo then presents a bit more playful contrast with a gorgeous central waltz section. The technical challenges then return for the finale but the bluster of the opening is gone and all ends with a sense of poise. Overall, McDermott’s performance finds a nice balance with the sort of Beethoven-like intensity with touches of grace and moments of reflective romance. It makes for a quite compelling performance.
Unusual harmonic ideas and key relationships help increase the emotional intensity of Schubert’s last sonata, D. 960 in Bb-Major composed just a few weeks away from the end of his life in 1828. There is a mysteriousness that hovers in the opening “Molto moderato” that also has moments of reflective lyricism that seems to exist in spite of whatever lurks beyond. McDermott brings out these aspects quite well in her performance. It is a rather lengthy opening running half of the sonata’s total playing time. With the thoughts of it lingering over us, Schubert moves on to the slow movement where the material seems to diverge between the hands creating two different soundscapes. It feels like a good jumping off point for whatever might come next in Romantic piano music with Brahms on the horizon. After some of this almost darker exploration, the tone shifts for the scherzo which still maintains a sense of delicacy (it is even in the tempo marking to be so). The finale finds several thematic ideas that feel like Schubert must get as many of these in before time is up. Something seems to be distracting as well with the way things seem to shift from one depth to another. Here is where Beethoven’s later sonatas also have their echo but this feels less a summation than an anticipation of what may lie ahead.
What is striking about McDermott’s performance is that we get a sense of where Schubert’s style falls in that bridging gap of the Classical Era and the Late Romantic. There is nothing genteel about these works that have extensive technical demands that she more than meets. Often the stream-of-conscious appearance of lyrical melodies can be disjointed in these sonatas, but everything moves well through these transitions with a performance that helps guide the listener and signals that we are moving into new realms. Bridge has captured the sound here quite well making for a recording that places us well in the soundspace with just a right touch of ambience to the hall. Usually these works are not paired together and they could not squeeze onto a single disc so there are no additional shorter piano works to fill out things here. Still, this is a highly recommendable set of performances that can sit alongside those in more complete cycles by Andras Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida who both have interesting approaches as well.