It’s impossible to fault Leif Ove Andsnes’ way with Schubert’s D major Sonata from a pianistic standpoint. His impeccable technique easily navigates the composer’s tricky triplet runs in the first movement (they’re harder to play than they sound). The slow movement’s double notes are ravishingly executed, while the Scherzo’s ricocheting dotted rhythms are uncommonly poised and precise. The latter movement’s trio features impressive legato chord playing whose shadings perceptively correspond to Schubert’s amazing modulatory patterns. The Rondo’s nursery rhyme-like main theme and its subsequent embellishments often can sound trite, yet Andsnes’ headlong treatment propels the music forward without sacrificing one iota of its inherent delicacy. Through their more inflected performances, Clifford Curzon, Artur Schnabel, and Richard Goode unquestionably generate a greater sense of dramatic tension and release–and yet Andsnes’ Schubertian instincts hold their own in such company, and even more so in the nine song collaborations with tenor Ian Bostridge.
Note the power and intensity Andsnes brings to the relentless churning accompanying in Auf der Bruck (similar in effect to those in the D major Sonata’s first movement), or his dense, full-throated shaping of Vom Mitleiden Mariä’s almost-Bachian two-part counterpoint. You never get the notion that the pianist is merely accompanying Bostridge, whose lower tessitura has gained in dimension and heft in addition to his patently suave higher register. A good example of this can be found in an unusually rangy song such as Im Walde, where the tenor is required to negotiate wide interval leaps with no effort and plenty of color to spare. No problem for Bostridge, none at all. I look forward to further volumes in this series.
