Shai Wosner - Schubert: Piano Sonatas (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Following on his critically acclaimed disc of Brahms and Schoenberg, Shai Wosner s second release for Onyx focuses on the music of Franz Schubert. Here he plays a selection of music including the composer s two late sonatas in fabulous performances that are sure to enhance his rising-star status. These works are in many ways polar opposites. Written in 1825, a year when the composer s health was robust and his finances in good order, the powerful, unfinished sonata D840 is monumental, stark and monolithic. The sonata D850, written at a time in the composer s life when he was broke, lonely and fighting with his publishers, is remarkable for its sunny disposition. This late masterwork was one of the few sonatas Schubert was able to publish during his lifetime and it brought him a very welcome payday of 300 florins.

"His playing of the German Dances has a muscularity and a lovely transparency, while the Hungarian Melody has an exquisite soulfulness. But what strikes the listener from the first few bars of the Sonata which opens this recording…is the aristocratic grace of Wosner's tone, and his expressive shades of staccato." (BBC Music Magazine)

"With this recital Shai Wosner declares himself a Schubertian of unfaltering authority and character. Entirely modern in style (tonally lean and sharply focused, never given to easy or sentimental options), he relishes every twist and turn in the so-called Reliquie Sonata…Wosner rivets your attention at every point. He also shows a high degree of charm and affection in the German Dances and the Hungarian Melody" (Gramophone Magazine)

"Wosner's performance, with its extremes of dynamics, glistening pianissimos followed by thunderous fortissimos, certainly projects [a] sense of something epic, while making a link to late Beethoven, and to his last sonata, Op 111, in particular." (The Guardian)

Tracklist:
01. Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, D. 845: I. Moderato (11:47)
02. Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, D. 845: II. Andante poco moto (11:19)
03. Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, D. 845: III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace - Trio: Un poco piu lento (6:51)
04. Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, D. 845: IV. Rondo (6:02)
05. Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, D. 894: I. Molto moderato cantabile (17:15)
06. Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, D. 894: II. Menuetto: Allegro moderato - Trio: Tempo piu moderato (8:23)
07. Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, D. 894: III. Andante (4:05)
08. Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, D. 894: IV. Allegretto (9:02)
09. Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D. 958: I. Allegro (9:52)
10. Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D. 958: II. Adagio (8:20)
11. Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D. 958: III. Menuetto: Allegro - Trio (3:15)
12. Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor D. 958: IV. Allegro (8:59)
13. Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-Flat Major, D. 960: I. Molto moderato (20:00)
14. Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-Flat Major, D. 960: II. Andante sostenuto (10:09)
15. Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-Flat Major, D. 960: III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza - Trio (4:09)
16. Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-Flat Major, D. 960: IV. Allegro ma non troppo (8:30)