For whatever reason, quite a few pianists have coupled Schubert’s “little” A major D. 664 and B-flat D. 960 sonatas on disc, including Victor Rosenbaum, Anna Malikova, Rudolf Buchbinder, Philippe Cassard, Jenö Jandó, Mikhail Kazakevich, Radu Lupu, and now Klára Würtz. Much of her playing commands attention.
She sustains the B-flat’s long opening Molto moderato movement by maintaining consistently clear textures in regard to melody and accompaniment separation. Her tempos are steady, straightforward, never rigidly held, and assiduously modified toward expressive means. The pianist also varies the timbral quality of legato lines and detached articulations in order to emphasize harmonic felicities.
While the Andante sostenuto matches some of these salient qualities, I miss the Leon Fleisher Vanguard recording’s sense of gravitas and desolation. The older pianist achieves this by taking a slower yet no less mobile tempo that allows him to execute the left-hand dotted 16th-note rest and upbeat 32nd-note ostinato pattern with consistent accuracy. Würtz, by contrast, often plays that same upbeat either as a 16th-note or a triplet 16th-note, almost like a tango. However, the crisp and lithe Scherzo benefits from Würtz’s supple and astute differentiation of the Trio section’s varied accents.
Her Finale is conscientious but often stiff. For instance, she hammers out the first theme’s staccato triplets rather than treating them as a melodic afterthought. Her lyrical parsing of the F major theme is appreciably nuanced, yet Barry Douglas’ forward moving urgency in the same passage better underscores the music’s syncopated rhythmic interplay.
In the A major’s opening Allegro moderato, Würtz taps into the movement’s disquieting moments (the development section’s intense octave build-up) more than the reposeful ones; there are lovelier and warmer examples of the exposition to be had from the aforementioned Lupu and Malikova. Like Richter, Würtz opts for double repeats.
She sets the Andante afloat by moving over the barlines with calm deliberation, and pays close attention to inner voices; the interpretation falls midway between Kempff’s animated intimacy and Richter’s mesmerizing, shimmering slow motion control. For all of the finale’s poise, precision, and sheen (the evenly matched scales, the impeccable dynamic gradations and balances between registers), more lilt and lightness would be welcome still. Yet even at less than this pianist’s absolute best (her complete Mozart sonatas, her solo Schumann recordings), Würtz remains an artist of no mean accomplishment.
