Schubert: Piano Sonatas D.845 & D.958 – Louis Schwizgebel

   in Piano International (Mar, 2017)
I heard Louis Schwizgebel performing Schubert’s Sonata No 19 in his International Piano Series recital at St John’s, Smith Square last year. His light (first half) and shade (second half) programme paired one of Schubert’s most ‘Beethovenian’ creations, with Beethoven’s rarely performed 32 Variations in C minor, to which the Schubert sonata’s opening motif alludes.

Listening to this disc, I was struck by Schwizgebel’s natural affinity with Schubert, as well as his developed and mature interpretation of this marvellous work. So, too, his nuanced account of another Schubert sonata with heavy shades of Beethoven: No 16 in A major. Schwizgebel succeeds in bringing out the Schubert in this music, too. Terrific …