Schubert: Piano Sonatas D 664 & 958 (SACD)

For the fifth part of the highly acclaimed Schubert+ series, Can Çakmur contrasts the Viennese composer with his famous predecessor Ludwig van Beethoven for the first time. After Schubert had perfected the lied genre, he still had to prove his full potential in the field of piano sonatas, a typically Beethovenian form. In his Sonata in A major, D 664, he abandons the traditionally oppositional character of the sonata and devotes himself to a melody-based narrative in which landscapes seem to change gradually, as if from the perspective of a traveler. In doing so, he offers a view that is as new as it is personal. Beethoven is represented here by a series of variations, a genre in which he also excelled. The 32 variations in C minor range from tender longing to emotional turmoil reminiscent of the Appassionata sonata. With the Sonata in C minor D 958 from 1828, the first part of his outstanding final trilogy, Schubert reaffirmed his claim to be regarded as Beethoven's successor as a composer of piano sonatas. In a work that Can Çakmur sees as an homage to Beethoven, Schubert succeeds in synthesizing the influence of the master with the lyricism of his own early sonatas. Just a few weeks before his death, the younger composer finally sits next to the older master and talks to him as equals.