Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D959

“This repertoire speaks to me in such a profound way.It strikes a chord in me in a way that no other music does.” Leif Ove Andsnes on Schubert

“This is a welcome separating of Andsnes's last Schubert sonatas from their couplings with Bostridge's way with some Lieder. These are noble accounts, but limited in an intensely competitive field.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ***

“…the sound of the 1825 Johann Fritz piano, and especially Andreas Staier’s handling of it, were simply revelatory… …it is Staier’s handling of the instrument, not the instrument itself, that makes these recordings so exceptional… As a final judgement, I’d say that this is the most impressive fortepiano recording I’ve heard. And that goes for sound quality too…A strong recommendation…” Gramophone

“Schubert’s great A major Sonata here receives a performance with an unusual dramatic edge. Christian Zacharias, whose versatility clearly enriches his arresting viewpoint, plays with a savage glint in his eye, bringing Schubert’s restless undercurrents to the surface so that the listener is left limp with a mixture of elation and exhaustion…there are no concessions made to the studio but a fiercely driven evocation of the desperation that hangs over the storm clouds of Schubert’s final years…Everything is relished to the full and nothing is taken for granted, with the composer’s startling harmonic twists and turns underlined with an audacious use of rubato…a vivid and compulsive experience no less boldly recorded.” Bryce Morrison, Gramophone