Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Piano Sonata No. 20 in A, D959
Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D960
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano, Paul McNulty, 2007, after Conrad Graf, c. 1819)
rec. 2022, Immanuelskirche, Wuppertal, Germany
BIS BIS-2624 SACD [81]
Ronald Brautigam, has recorded all the Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven piano sonatas on fortepiano. In 2023 he presented a first disc playing Schubert’s two sets of Impromptus (review). Now he turns to Schubert’s piano sonatas. What for me makes Piano Sonata 21 D960, his last, the greatest is its equability, the result of coping with all life’s difficulties – as Hamlet says, “The readiness is all.” Brautigam’s opening is mellow and flowing. I wouldn’t say molto moderato, but more importantly it has a welcoming quality, disturbed by the disruptive subterranean bass trill at the end of the opening section. But now the second part of the theme (tr. 5, 0:51), despite the clamour and tension of the left hand, remains optimistic, confirmed by the robust return of the opening. A new phase in F sharp minor (2:00) brings a second theme in concerned, rather pleading tenor register which is a transformation of the first below a soprano register descant, Brautigam’s fine balance between the hands showing the struggle the soprano overcomes in taking and transfiguring the melody, clarified in dancing staccato quavers (3:07). There’s also an appreciable roundedness of resolution (3:47), climax (4:02), exultation and impishness in the first time only codetta of the exposition (4:33) and then that menacing low bass growl before the exposition repeat. In the development (9:35), the first theme now in C sharp minor, tries to free itself through a stream of arpeggios and then a ‘third theme’ transformation of the first (10: 41). This achieves a tender and memorable fruition (11:28) and the first theme joins it, as do the bass rumblings. The first theme recap then sounds a statement of faith, as does the second theme’s recap with a more elaborate descant than earlier. In the coda (18:11) all’s peaceful, albeit the softening bass rumble remains.
I compare this with Andras Schiff recorded in 2014 (review). His fortepiano, made in Vienna c. 1820 by Franz Bradman, has a more luscious tone but less projection. Schiff’s is a gentler, more intimate, inward-looking approach, the bass growl rather distant, the emphasis on beautiful melody. His first loud passage has feeling but isn’t as dramatic and outward as Brautigam’s. Schiff’s second theme is less distraught, its later staccato quavers more gracious than dancing. His development seems stranger, an icy climate, the bass emphasised more against the arpeggios. There’s an engaging simplicity about the glorification of the second theme and first theme recap. The second theme recap is that of a crystalline harp.
The opening of the ‘slow’ movement juxtaposes a left-hand four figure rising across three octaves and a melancholy right-hand melody. If the left-hand figure is bell peals in a C sharp minor funeral, Brautigam’s equipoise between the hands softens the pain of bereavement. The central section in A major (tr. 2, 2:46) remembers the loved one and clarifies a relationship, its theme beginning in rich ‘baritone’ register, the soprano repeat (3:12) adding varied semiquaver runs after which their contributions alternate. Brautigam conveys a warm relationship, the closing soprano solo’s change from happiness (4:42) to a gradual acceptance of inevitable separation (from 4:59) is very moving. At the return to the opening, the left-hand has an additional four-note motif, like funeral carriage wheels biting into the road. The first section moment of pathos is now in C major (6:06), an extraordinarily pallid effect from Brautigam before some warmth of remembrance returns with a coda in C sharp major (7:19). Brautigam negotiates all the twists and turns sensitively. Timing the movement at 8:22 he’s closer to Andante sostenuto than Schiff’s 7:34 and, with more pointed dynamic contrast in Brautigam’s fortepiano, better balanced between tension and remembrance.
The Scherzo and Trio celebrate rebirth in a skipping dance, Allegro vivace con delicatezza. Again, a partnership: the soprano proposing the first theme, the baritone repeating it. The soprano starts the second strain (tr. 3, 013) with a more complex manoeuvre; the baritone prefers rhapsodising on the first strain. Brautigam revels in the joie de vivre of frisky youths, but his delicatezza does appear in the quieter period from 0:26. The Trio (2:06) shows the man to be a clodhopper, fzps on the beat clashing against the lady gliding across the beat. Schiff is almost all delicatezza, more refined but less fun.
In the mischievous rondo finale, joie de vivre gets a Credo status in the broader theme of its first episode (tr. 4, 1:27) parading over a carpet of semiquavers. Then to enjoy, as Brautigam does, there’s the shock of a ff declamation (2:32) which with sudden pp turns out to be a paper tiger. The first episode is thoroughly developed (4:11) but the presto coda prefers to be uproarious. Brautigam, timing at 8:46 against Schiff’s 8:31, is closer to Allegro, ma non troppo. The slightly faster pulse ensures that Schiff is very neat and quite dandy, yet I feel it suits this finale less well than the uninhibited Brautigam.
Unforgettable in Piano Sonata 20, D959is its slow movement’s haunting lament whose Andantino marking and the regular accompaniment lilt to its sole melody also suggest a lullaby. Gawkiness of rhythm and decoration plus insistent accents and fps suggest protest as well as remembrance. The melody is presented four times with alternating softer presentation and octave higher doubling adding pathos and a searchlight. The central section (tr. 2, 3:12) is a brainstorm, crushingly four brutal fz chords across the full range of the fortepiano punctuating six-semiquaver motifs from 4:17, changing to seven, initially spiteful then gradually mellower, arpeggios in the bass register from 4:46. This leads to a warmer transition passage but then also a bass growl of the kind heard in the first movement of Sonata 21. This movement’s melody returns from 5:44 with added decorative beauty in the upper register. The coda (7:07), all in bass register, mixes warmth and grumbling bass shadow. Brautigam rises vividly and staunchly to all this movement’s challenges.
Michael Greenhalgh
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