Piemontesi ensures every note counts
Michael Church feels that understatement is the key to success with Schubert
Schubert
Piano Sonatas Nos 19-21 Francesco Piemontesi (piano) Pentatone PTC 5186 742
116:49 mins (2 discs)
Schubert’s last three piano sonatas, like Beethoven’s, represent a creative summit, less transcendent but still a perfect culmination of his oeuvre. And to complete the symmetry, the first sonata of Schubert’s three opens with a restatement of the theme of Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor. Francesco Piemontesi handles this moment with cool gravity, before embarking on an interpretation which brings out the sheer sweetness of the movement.
The following Adagio, permeated with references to Winterreise, radiates a calm serenity, every note being made to count as Piemontesi slows down almost to a halt, all passion spent; after letting the music spring delicately back into life in the Menuetto he gives us an account of the galloping Allegro which has none of the affectation with which some leading pianists infuse it. Piemontesi’s instinctive good taste means he never indulges in histrionics, and operates on the principle that understatement can carry more emotional power than its converse. This performance of D958 is the best I have ever heard.
His D959 exhibits the same virtues, finding magisterial beauty in the opening movement’s scalar figurations, and presenting the mysterious storm in the middle of the Andantino as though it’s a passing trauma gracefully overcome, rather than a terminal breakdown. And D960, recorded live and technically immaculate, is glorious. Piemontesi brings ruminative eloquence to the first movement, hushed beauty to the Andante, sparkle to the Scherzo, and muscular lightness to the finale which many players struggle to make coherent, but which here has an unforced naturalness. PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★★
★★★★★
Piemontesi’s pianism lies in his instinctive good taste