Franz Schubert: Piano Sonatas Vol. 1 – Martin Helmchen

Martin Helmchen embarks on a complete recording of Schubert’s piano sonatas, with four double albums to be released between now and 2028, the bicentenary of the composer’s death. He has waited until he was in his forties to embark on this adventure because, in his view, an artist needs maturity to meet the challenges posed by the radical contrasts in Schubert’s sonatas: “constant virtuosity that is never needlessly complex, set against sober interiority, the exuberant joy of the Ländler, and bouts of dramatic madness”. Recording a complete body of work also meant studying the scores carefully and tackling the question of the movements left unfinished by the composer, should we stop at the precise point where Schubert stopped composing simply because Schubert either ran out of time or did not have enough money to buy music manuscript paper? Helmchen has chosen to complete these movements, inspired by the recordings and above all the analyses of the eminent pianist Paul Badura-Skoda. This first volume presents sonatas composed between 1815 (Schubert was 18) and 1825. The entire cycle has been recorded on a Bösendorfer piano at the Kronberg Academy.