Schubert/Zimerman - Piano Sonatas D959 and D960

The Guardian 100

Krystian Zimerman
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Krystian Zimerman was 60 last December. As he reveals in an interview included with these performances, approaching that milestone convinced him it was time to “find the courage” to record the late sonatas by Schubert and Beethoven that he has been including in his recitals for more than 30 years. The first result of that decision is this pairing of the final Schubert sonatas. Other than a performance of Grazyna Bacewicz’s Second Piano Sonata (included alongside her two piano quintets on a DG disc of six years ago), these are Zimerman’s first solo piano recordings since his Debussy Préludes appeared in 1994.

Characteristically, the performances have been prepared with immense care. To recreate something of the sound world that Schubert would have known, Zimerman used a tailor-made piano, replacing the standard Steinway keyboard and action with one he designed and made himself. The hammers strike the strings at a different point, creating a new set of overtones and hence a different range of keyboard colours, and the action becomes lighter too. (Played on a modern grand, he says, “the many repeated notes in Schubert could turn into Prokofiev.”)