Schubert - Fantasie in F Minor, etc

The Guardian 80

Staier/Melnikov
(Harmonia Mundi)

Schubert played piano duets in living rooms, with friends, for friends. To me, it feels a bit weird seeing these pieces on big stages under concert lights, so I love a recording that takes them back to a living-room vibe. Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov play a nut-warm, sweet-voiced fortepiano modelled after the kind of instrument Schubert would have known (for the cognoscenti: it’s a Graf copy by Christopher Clarke).