Francesco Piemontesi a enregistré les trois dernières Sonates pour piano de Schubert à la Salle de musique en février 2018, la même semaine que son concert pour la Société de Musique. Cet album sort chez Pentatone le 20 septembre 2019, quelques jours avant la venue de Francesco Piemontesi à la Salle de musique pour son concert avec Renaud Capuçon. Il s’agit de la première collaboration entre Francesco Piemontesi et le label Pentatone.
Pianist Francesco Piemontesi interprets Schubert’s last three piano sonatas (D958-D960) on his PENTATONE debut album, after years of engagement with these extraordinary works. These sonatas continue to fascinate pianists and listeners until this very day. They are arguably among the most existential music ever written for the piano, full of beauty and sadness, celebrating life and at the same time anticipating the composer’s untimely death. Even if Schubert was barely thirty years old when he wrote these works, they reveal the otherworldly and detached nature of what is often described as “late style”, while the music remains highly expressive and personal.
“Schubert’s last three sonatas D958, 959 and 960 were written in 1828 during the last months of his life, but first published ten years after his death. Like his other sonatas, they were almost forgotten for nearly a hundred years. From today’s perspective, it amazes me how long it took for these pieces to finally take their rightful place in the piano repertoire. The three last sonatas represent the most existential music ever written for the piano and are full of beauty and sadness, full of life and the premonition of death. But above all, full of humanity. They are part of the most personal music that Schubert composed. I have been engaged with these works for more than a decade and have frequently performed them cyclically. The long musical journey that connects me with them is reflected in this recording.” – Francesco Piemontesi