Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Gottlieb Wallisch :: Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 8 & 15 'Reliquie'

More of Schubert's Unfinished Piano Sonatas, Beautifully Pla

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gottlieb Wallisch is an Austrian pianist, not yet thirty, whose third CD of Schubert piano music this is. He has previously given us some unfinished fragments of piano sonatas as well as a few early sonatas by Schubert Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 5, 7a, 11 & 12, Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2, 3 & 6 and here are more. One might wonder why we bother with recordings of music that, often as not, breaks off in the middle of things. But Schubert's genius, and in particular the recent upsurge of interest in his piano sonatas, makes this a worthy undertaking. And no one that I've heard does better than young Wallisch (whose name, by the way, is not to be confused with the English family of musicians called 'Wallfisch'). He has inerrant musical instincts and the technical ability to bring them to life. Also, the recorded sound of his piano is extraordinarily pleasing.



All the pieces presented here are fragments of one sort or another. This includes his very first sonata, D. 157 in E Major, which contains three finished movements but not the expected finale. Like with his familiar 'Unfinished Symphony', one could simply say that what we have is what he intended, but musicologists suggest that he simply didn't get to the fourth movement. Nonetheless, the work is sometimes played in recital. One must say, however, that the rather tentative-sounding third movement, a minuet, does not make a satisfying conclusion to the work.



The F Sharp Minor Sonata, D. 571, has first and last movements that are unfinished. The first movement is a haunting thing, gorgeously played by Wallisch. One can only lament that Schubert did not finish it. There have been some modern attempts at finishing it, but Wallisch plays only what Schubert wrote, breaking off after 141 bars. The two middle movements, both complete, are a scherzo and an andante. They are followed by a finale that breaks off just before the beginning of the expected recapitulation. Wallisch, who wrote exemplary notes for this issue, doesn't hide his disappointment about this sonata being unfinished, but he resists the temptation to write his own completion of the work.



The next two selections are single movements (D.655 in C sharp minor & D.769a in E Major) from two different sonatas, neither of them lasting longer than three minutes. One unusual touch is that there is a section in the first of these that is in the very rare key of G Sharp Major.



The CD concludes with the most familiar of all the presented works, the so-called 'Reliquie' ('Relic') Sonata No. 15 in C Major, D.840. Its first three movements are complete. The finale, a Rondo which masquerades as a sonata-allegro, breaks off after a very promising beginning. Our loss. Still, one would not want to be without it. Again, Wallisch plays with great insight and depth of feeling.



After three CDs of Schubert piano music played by Gottlieb Wallisch I am prepared to say that he is one of the best Schubert players of the present age. I hope these three CDs presage a complete recorded traversal of all of Schubert's piano works.



Strongly recommended.



Scott Morrison"