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Epicurus.com - Schubert: The Piano Sonatas
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List Price: $55.98
Our Price: $50.49
Your Save: $ 5.49 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028946376621
Format: Box set
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 7
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 2000-10-10
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Editorial Reviews:
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Wilhelm Kempff was a master of poetic lyricism, with a wondrous keyboard touch and a breathtaking command of subtle dynamics and tonal colorations--all invaluable attributes of any Schubert interpreter. He also had the knack of holding together large structures that can often seem aimless, thus avoiding another trap many pianists fall into, that of lavishing so much attention on passing detail that Schubert's "heavenly lengths" can seem wayward wanderings. The one criticism often heard is that Kempff emphasizes poetry at the expense of drama. This magnificent set leaves that claim unsubstantiated. Few pianists have been so successful, for example, in what may be Schubert's wildest single movement, the nightmarish Andantino of the A major Sonata, D. 959. Here, Kempff captures the tortured mood of the piece to perfection without breaking its Classical frame. Tempos are generally expansive, but Kempff's tonal luster and unerring sense of natural phrasing never make you want him to step on the accelerator. A special treat is the inclusion of rarely heard early works. Some of these were left unfinished; others reflect a composer still mastering his craft. But most are of more than passing interest, and some have an enchanting, aching beauty. Kempff's Schubert set has been a recording classic since its release on LP; its availability in a space-saving CD box at a budget price is cause for celebration. --Dan Davis
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Kempff is famous for his Schubert, which keeps on the sunny side of the street
Comment: As the breathless Amazon review indicates, there's a worshipful aura surrounding Wilhelm Kempff. Consider the Gramophone's comment about his Schubert: "No other pianist has communicated Schubert with a greater sense of his final transcendence of earthly pain and travail." Kempff has been dead long enough that a host of younger listeners might not hear magic in these famous recordings. Kempff wasn't around to see Schubert redefined as a dark, conflicted, and in the end tragic composer. No, to Kempff all of this music is sunny, lyrical, and in the end optimistic.
There are some contemporary pianists who adhere to the same view -- Brendel, Andras Schiff, Radu Lupu, Richard Goode -- all of whom display more nuanced shading than Kempff did. For an earlier era Kempff's touch may have seemed sophisticated, even magical, but frankly, he's a bit flat-footed in the Minuets and slow movements of many sonatas, and there's a general tendency toward the prosaic. Phrasing is apt to be foursquare a lot of the time, too. Where tragedy and intensity count the most (e.g., in the "Relique" and A major Op. Post. sonatas), Kempff feels too one-dimensional. On the other hand, in the sunny sonata in A D. 664 he's quite delightful. One thing Kempff never indulges in is fussiness or archness; his successors are too often guilty of both.
If you can pick and choose at one of the download sites online, there are things to treasure in Kempff's Schubert, but I think only fans and completists are likely to want the whole box. As for me, my tastes run toward Schnabel, Pollini, and Richter (with respectful nods to Serkin and Perahia) as pianists who have the most to say in Schubert's haunting, elusive piano music.
P.S. - a closer listen reminded me that DG gave Kempff rather distant, brittle recording, so don't expect the piano to sound plush or deep.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Schubert - Beautiful music, Great interpretation, Bargain Price!
Comment: It really doesn't get better than this - 7 cds of absolutely beautiful music played with passion, grace, and fire. While I enjoy all forms of classical music, sometimes the sound of a lone piano just sounds right.
Others have opined that this is the best complete set of Schubert piano sonatas available. I cannot say that with a certainty because I don't own any others. What I can say with a certainty is that if you order this set, you will not be disappointed. The beauty of music is its ability to soothe, awaken, and transport the listener to a place other worldly - a place that is uniquely his/her own. This piano music does just that - it is the vehicle by which you enter another world. A world that is Schubert, Kempff, and yours. What a great place to go after a tough day at work!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Set but Beware
Comment: To my uneducated ear this set is excellent. But beware, the first CD of the first set sent to me, when viewed on iTunes was totally in an oriental language. I sent the set back and the second set had the very same thing. The first CD seems to have come from a foreign edition. All other CDs were fine. The paperwork was in English.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good indeed.
Comment: Schubert's Piano Sonatas essentially are rather private and occasionally introspective works. They are "more Wigmore Hall than Albert Hall" and perhaps this is one reason why they are not so often included in public performances but "Hausmusik" these works are not.
Elliot Richman in an earlier review has said "Modern players, despite their steel fingers and elephantine endurance and machine-like (sometimes machine-gun-like) techniques, stand to learn a lot from this old master's art." How true, how true! Similar exemplars of Kempff's less frenetic approach include Clifford Curzon, Friedrich Wuhrer and Walter Gieseking. Perhaps in some measure it is appropriate that these Sonatas are bypassed by a few of today's heavy hitters on the international recital circuit for these intimate works do not respond well to modern robotics. I am reminded of Rosalyn Tureck's observation: "I have seen a diminution of passionate involvement in the art of music and I have seen a crescendo in passionate involvement with careers".
None of the Sonatas was publicly performed in Schubert's lifetime. This is a sad quirk of history and certainly not a reflection of their musical worth. Beethoven had thirty of his Sonatas published posthumously but in my view these lovely, often haunting Schubert gems are deserving of an appreciation very much wider than they seem to have; certainly beyond the B flat major and a couple of others which are better known.
Wilhelm Kempff's performance here is to his customary and uniquely high standard of interpretation and empathetic treatment; that alone makes this set a "must buy". Whilst the recordings can be a trifle woolly in places and probably would benefit from the digital magic which Deutsche Grammophon successfully has applied to some other older performances, the quality is entirely acceptable and any shortcomings are in no sense obtrusive.
I adore these pieces; it is very evident that Wilhelm Kempff does too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sometimes the old ways are the best
Comment: Kempff himself wrote the liner notes to this highly satisfying set and states the following: "The deeper we penetrate into the world of Schubert, however, the greater is our surprise at discovering that the 'heavenly length' for which he is reproached is to be regarded relatively. If the length becomes evident as longueurs, the fault lies with the interpreter (I speak from my own experience...)." Indeed, in listening to Kempff play the Schubert sonata canon the thoughts of "overly long" or "needlessly repetitive" never entered my head. Barring some extraordinary performances of individual sonatas over the years, such as Richter's old Russian recording of the c minor (D 958) on Melodiya or Serkin's equally old recording of the B-flat (D 960), this is the best playing of the Schubert sonatas I know.
I used to think of some of the earlier sonatas as practice or training pieces for the later masterworks (which of course by definition they are, but they need not be viewed retrospectively from the vantage point of the late works). Unfortunately, they often sound boring and immature. This is due to defects in players and the playing, not a problem with Schubert. Kempff makes all the sonatas here, including the early ones, glow with the utmost musicality so they stand on their own as beautiful works. Just one example: In the earlier of the a minor sonatas he handles little secondary figures that are intercalated within major theme phrases in an amazingly musical and beautiful way. As a pianist myself, I could never figure out how to make them unobtrusive, let alone desirable. Under Kempff's fingers they fit sublimely into the fabric of the work. The playing is clearly layered, every note and phrase has its place and purpose, his internal logic is such that nothing Schubert wrote sounds less than as it should. One more example: The first movement of the G major sonata ("Fantasy" sonata, D 894) floats in its ethereal haze but goes fast, not slow. Kempff can produce the effect of suspended animation without suspending the actual motion. This is no doubt what Schubert intended but it is very difficult to pull off as a performer. Kempff's treatment of the last 5 sonatas (D, G, A, c minor, and B flat) is breathtaking.
This set is a revelation. What a magnificent panorama of Schubert's development as a composer! Also, the origins of later composers' styles can be traced to Schubert's writing for piano. The roots of Bruckner's iterated and protracted symphonies can be heard, for example, in the way the finale of the a minor sonata begins. (I don't think this is apparent from other players, who lack Kempff's lyricism and mysticism.) Included beside the actual titled sonatas are various fragments of incomplete sonatas and collections of piano pieces that in effect are untitled sonatas (such as D 459/459A).
The recordings are from around 1965-1970 and the piano sound is singing, glowing, radiant. I recommend this set wholeheartedly to anyone interested in great musicianship, masterly piano playing, Schubert's piano music, and Schubert's evolution as a composer. Kempff makes you realize that the magic didn't all happen in the last year of Schubert's life, and I can't think of another pianist who does that for me. (There are few, if any, major players of Schubert with whom I'm not familiar.) Kempff was the leading German pianist of the immediate post-WW II era, but I think he has largely been forgotten. His Schubert, Beethoven, and Brahms are wonderful. Modern players, despite their steel fingers and elephantine endurance and machine-like (sometimes machine-gun-like) techniques, stand to learn a lot from this old master's art.
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