Barry Douglas’ critically acclaimed series of Schubert piano works reaches it fourth instalment. For this recording, Douglas has chosen to present three piano sonatas from the middle of Schubert’s short life: no.5 (D.537) and no.11 (D.575) both composed in 1817, interspersed with the 15th sonata (D.664) composed just 2 years later. The three Sonatas all spring from a period where Schubert was experimenting with tonality, both in the sense of less usual keys (D.575 is in B major) and in terms of the relative keys of the movements, and sections within movements. Irrespective of this experimentation, Schubert’s incredible talent for melody and lyricism shines through each of these works, and is masterfully demonstrated in Douglas’ interpretations. As with the previous three volumes in the series, the recording was made on a Steinway Model D in the Curtis Auditorium at the CIT Cork School of Music.
Here is Barry Douglas in Schubert’s Sonata #21, D960:
