This album presents the final recordings made by Maurizio Pollini before his death in March 2024 at the age of 82.
Pollini and his son Daniele perform a programme dedicated to
three aspects of
Schubert’s piano music – the sonatas, the collections of miniatures and the works for four hands
The album will be released on 25 October 2024
Listen to the opening movement of the Fantasia in F minor
for piano four hands, D 940 here“Schubert was unquestionably one of the
composers my father loved most.
As a boy, I learned to appreciate the greatness of his music
by listening to my father’s beautiful interpretations of the Sonatas in B flat
major, D 960, and G major, D 894.”
Daniele Pollini
Maurizio Pollini passed on his deep love for the music of
Schubert to his son and fellow pianist Daniele Pollini. A few years ago they
began working together on a joint Schubert project and, in June 2022, recorded
a carefully chosen programme at the Herkulessaal in Munich. Sadly, Maurizio
Pollini died in March 2024, aged 82. This, his last recording, serves as a fine
memorial to a groundbreaking musician who was an exclusive artist with Deutsche
Grammophon for over five decades.
On the album, Pollini senior performs the Piano Sonata in G
major, D 894, Daniele Pollini plays the Moments musicaux, D 780, and they join
forces for the Fantasia in F minor for four hands, D 940. Maurizio Pollini ·
Daniele Pollini – Schubert comes out digitally and on CD on 25 October 2024,
with an accompanying booklet featuring a note on the repertoire by Paolo
Petazzi. The first movement of the Fantasia is available to stream/download
now, and the third movement of the Sonata will be released on 4 October.
Planning this project was a labour of love for both men. “My
father’s interest in Schubert extended beyond his exceptional output for solo
piano,” says Daniele Pollini. “As well as performing Winterreise with Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau, he also programmed several of his other vocal or choral works
in the concert series he organised. As for me, I think Schubert was simply one
of the most extraordinary composers who ever lived.”
“Having recorded Debussy’s En blanc et noir [for two pianos]
together in 2016, I thought it would be nice to make an album of four-hands
pieces by Schubert. In the end, we chose the Sonata in G major, Moments
musicaux and Fantasia in order to showcase the extraordinary variety of
Schubert’s expressive world through three key areas of his piano music: the
sonatas, the sets of short pieces, and the works for four hands.”
The Piano Sonata in G major, D 894, is a work of enormous
poetic intensity, especially in the hands of Maurizio Pollini. Written in the
autumn of 1826, it anticipates the final three sonatas Schubert wrote just
before his death in 1828, and is their equal in terms of scale and
expressiveness. Schumann called it Schubert’s “most perfect sonata in form and
spirit”. Recalling their own conversations about the work, Daniele remembers
his father’s appreciation of, among other aspects, “the exceptional contrasts in
the opening movement, which is built on such lyricism and poetry, particularly
the highly dramatic moments in the development section and the use of extreme
dynamics such as fff and ppp.”
The six works that make up the Moments musicaux, D 780, were
probably written between 1823 and 1828, but the set is intended to be performed
in full. “What’s most fascinating about the Moments musicaux,” explains Daniele
Pollini, “is the emotional journey that unfolds as you listen to the six
performed as a cycle, with the final piece bringing it to a conclusion in such
a melancholy atmosphere.” He plays this characterful and inventive set of works
with a sensitivity that brings out every subtle shift in mood, dynamic and
tempo.
Paolo Petazzi calls the Fantasia in F minor, dating from
early 1828, “the crowning glory of Schubert’s extensive output for piano four
hands”. Daniele Pollini agrees, observing that the writing creates “complex and
very sophisticated polyphonic and timbral combinations impossible for just two
hands to play, resulting in a kind of hugely original ‘enhanced’ piano”. That
requires the two pianists to work “in perfect symbiosis” – even though this was
the first time he and his father had seriously worked on a four-hands piece
together, they achieved that feat in considerable style.
This album looks both to the past, reminding us of the
peerless legacy of Maurizio Pollini, and to the future, offering an insight
into the wholly individual artistry of Daniele Pollini. It also captures a
unique shared moment. “What was always going to be a very special occasion
became something we’ll never be able to repeat,” says Daniele. “I’m very happy
to have had the opportunity to make this album devoted to Schubert, and to have
played alongside my father on his final recording.”
https://www.universal-music.de/mauriziopollini/news/maurizio-daniele-pollini-play-schubert-274009
