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I love that piece.
Specially the second movement.
Braendel is one of the best for Schubert.

I love this Sonata too and was very lucky and thrilled to see Brendel perform it twice in this his retirement year (in Hamburg and Flensburg). The experience will live with me always. I will see him again, for the last time, in Hamburg on the 4th Dec when he will perform Mozart's piano concerto in C minor KV 491, with the SWR Sinfonieorchester. The orchestra will also perform Schubert's symphony in C minor D 417 (The 'tragic').

Lucky you, indeed! It is a perfect sonata for such a farewell event, of course. I only saw him in Basel last winter (not with D960; instead some Impromptus, together with Haydn and Mozart c minor sonatas and Beethoven 110). Btw, for his real farewell in Vienna, he is going to play the Jeunehomme concerto, which is a very unsentimental choice! (I might have preferred #27, sentimental as I am ).

To make this post not completely off-topic let me state that I also love D960, especially the first two movements.

P.S. I just see our dear 1-star troll has been active again. Nothing else to contribute, apparently... :rolleyes:

*Shares excitement*

My only reservation about the Brendel recording that I have is that he doesn't repeat the exposition in the first movement. Are you kidding me?? Him of all people. That crashing F7 chord followed by the fortissimo trill is one of my favorite moments in the movement. I cannot believe he chooses to leave it out.

Other than that, Brendel's interpretation of this sonata is excellent. No one plays the final coda of the sonata quite like him.

Daniel

Yeah, my first reaction upon Brendel's passing over the repeat was away with him, off with his head!. :t:

Pity, there are so many other recordings of Brendel I admire. His recording of Liszt's Benediction is the finest I have heard, preferable to Arrau's beautifully played, but excessively meditative approach. There can be a fine line between religion and sex, and Liszt certainly understood that.

You know when I listen to all his recordings, even in all the Lieder Cycles that he did specially with Dietrich Fischer D., I can feel something really deep and sincere in the interpretation... He is unique for me.

It's going to be a stretch for me, but I hope to learn this magnificent work (or at least the parts I can manage to play).

I am currently working on the second movement (Andante Sostenuto). My edition has no fingering so I have to work out my own.

I'm having a lot of trouble with the portions of the middle section in A major where the right hand has both the melody and harmony in the form of broken chords (M. 51-58 and M. 76-88).

I have been trying all sorts of complicated fingerings to make the theme as legato as possible (finger shifting, pinky under fourth, fourth over pinky, sliding from black key to white key, etc.) From what I can see on their YouTube videos Brendel and Pires seem to employ a very straightforward approach of playing the theme mostly with the pinky and sometimes the fourth.

Am I making this too complicated? Should I be able to rely on pedaling to achieve a legato effect?