Schubert: The Last Piano Sonatas

Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi performs Schubert's last three piano sonatas (D958-D960) on his PENTATONE debut album after years of studying these extraordinary works. These sonatas continue to fascinate pianists and listeners alike. They are perhaps among the most existential pieces ever written for the piano, full of beauty and sorrow. They celebrate life while at the same time foreshadowing their composer's early death. Although Schubert was barely thirty when he wrote these works, they reveal the otherworldly and detached nature of what is often called his "late style," while remaining intensely expressive and personal. Francesco Piemontesi, who studied with Alfred Brendel among others, is one of the most renowned pianists of his generation and is considered an ideal interpreter, particularly of the early Romantic repertoire.