Franz Schubert : Oeuvres pour piano solo (Volume 1)

   in Piano International (Sep, 2014)
Superbly recorded in Cork Music School, this fresh, unaffected D960 underlines the newly sensitive side of Barry Douglas that seems to be surfacing at this point in his career (heard also in his recent Brahms recordings for Chandos). He holds the long view in mind in the first movement of Schubert’s last sonata, and his slow way with the third movement Trio takes the music to a disturbing realm. Only the finale is rather clumsy. The Schubert/Liszt lied arrangements work well as an interlude between the two meatier works, the nervous energy of Ungeduld leading naturally into the explosive opening to the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy. Unfortunately, the work itself rather lacks cogency …