Todd Crow - Schubert: Piano Sonatas (1989)

Schubert's piano sonatas used to be damned as unpianistic. So much the worse for pianism, which was not his goal. As always, Schubert was simply writing music, and he never wrote more gloriously than in the sonatas' finest moments. The present A minor, though less well-known than the later sonata in that key (D. 845), contains an utterly transcendent moment, when the first movement's lovely second theme improbably becomes even sweeter in the recapitulation through a simple rhythmic twist. Mr. Crow, an American pianist and scholar of some experience, plays that theme almost prayerfully, and approaches both works with obvious respect but plenty of individual character and a willingness to linger. A fine disk. - The New York Times