Andras Schiff
Franz Schubert
(ECM New Series)
I know that some general music lovers recoil at the prospect of being confronted with a period instrument and a historically-informed performance. I have no hesitation in recommending that they should explore without fear this absolutely magical double album of Schubert's piano music, played by Andras Schiff on an 1820 Brodmann fortepiano. Yes, the sound-world is different, a little more gentle, a lot more intimate, and with a very different dynamic and range of colours. And yes, if that sound-world is new to you, and you are more accustomed to your favourite music played on a brilliant, gleaming, modern Steinway grand, it will take a little time and familiarisation to warm to this very different world. But it's a gorgeous world, with some of Schubert's best-known tunes enshrined in the Impromptus and Moments Musicaux, and music of serene beauty in the G major and B flat Sonatas, all of it revealing different perspectives in Schiff's playing on this superb ECM New Series production.
Michael Tumelty
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