Composer: Franz Peter Schubert
Performer: Sergey Koudriakov
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Audite
Catalogue: AUDITE92546
Release: 2008
Size: 187 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
iano Sonata No. 17 in D major, D850
01. I. Allegro vivace
02. II. Con moto
03. III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
04. IV. Rondo: Allegro moderato
Klavierstücke, D946
05. No. 1 in E flat minor
06. No. 2 in E flat major
07. No. 3 in C major
Listeners looking for a change from the usual beatific-lyric take on Schubert’s piano music might try Sergey Koudriakov’s 2008 Audite disc coupling the Austrian composer’s D major Piano Sonata, D. 850, and his Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946. With his virtuosic technique, Koudriakov can easily handle the demands of the racing Allegro assai of the Klavierstücke, and with his balanced tone he can gracefully express the nuanced sonorities of the following Allegretto. But what Koudriakov really has to offer is an intensely dramatic approach to Schubert’s D major Sonata that has to be heard to be believed. He brings youthful freshness to the sonata’s outer movements and verve and exuberance to its Allegro vivace Scherzo. But most arresting is Koudriakov’s highly dramatic reading of the enormous central Con moto. Though his tempo is daringly slow, his tight control of dynamics and pacing is wholly effective in molding the form and shaping the climaxes. Even more impressive is Koudriakov’s ability to sustain the long line even in a movement filled with pauses and fermatas, making the entire movement seem a single, unified aesthetic act. Captured in clear, evocative super audio by Audite, Koudriakov’s Schubert disc should be heard by anyone who reveres the music or the composer.