Collectors should note that the first six discs in this collection are the same Anton Kuerti Schubert performances released by Pickwick IMP Masters in the early 1990s. As a Schubertian, Kuerti often mirrors the gaunt sonority and nervous energy of Alfred Brendel and Rudolf Serkin (the latter with whom Kuetri studied). Fast, declamatory movements are feverishly probed and projected, sometimes to thrilling, cumulative effect, as in the Wanderer Fantasy and epic F minor Impromptu (D. 935 No. 1), plus the D major, A minor D. 537, and posthumous C minor sonatas. Yet Kuerti’s rhythmic hemming and hawing throughout portions of the G major “Fantasy” sonata, the posthumous A major and B-flat major sonatas, and the Moments Musicaux tend to impede the music’s unpressured flow. The early E-flat and B major sonatas are played with charm, exuberance, and lightness of texture. Kuerti’s terse yet movingly sustained Andante movement from the unfinished C major “Relique” sonata appears by itself. According to his lively booklet notes, the pianist finds the work’s haunting first movement too “bombastic, repetitive, and tedious” to warrant inclusion here. Uchida, Richter, Brendel, and Kempff would disagree.
