Philippe Cassard & Cédric Pescia - Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 & Piano duets with Cédric Pescia (2014) [Hi-Res]

The a major tonality of the rondo makes me think of two other late masterpieces, the clarinet works of Mozart’s final years (the Quintet and the concerto). Of these three four-hands pieces, it’s the one that moves me most. The main theme is one of schubert’s most perfect melodies, unbearably melancholic right up to the closing bars (which are somewhat reminiscent of the end of the Fantasy in F minor, but in a more resigned, tragic mode), during which schubert takes leave of his theme and can never quite bring himself to come to a close . . .

In Lebensstürme we see schubert the visionary: passionate, tumultuous, breathless. Beethoven is never far away, and there’s a pre-echo of Bruckner (the second theme!).

the Fantasy is an imposing structure that shows many different facets of schubert: the sadness of the first theme, which goes through so many varied perspectives and keys (and where it’s impossible to say which of the two modes, major or minor, is the more poignant); the peremptory, capricious aspect of the largo (with trills foreshadowing those of Mahler’s third symphony); the dance (a sort of valse noble et sentimentale) of the third movement; and finally the big (double) fugue, which stops abruptly on the dominant, before the final, heartrending, hopeless statement of the theme.

Philippe Cassard, piano
Cédric Pescia, piano