Fazıl Say | piano 

Fazıl Say likes to push the envelope, to change our habits. A "normal" pianist would be content with the Goldberg Variations, and then go home. Not this one who, like an ogre at the keyboard, joins them with a Schubert Sonata. And not just any Sonata: the Nineteenth, the first of the last three extensive ones, contemporary with the Fantasia in F minor or the String Quintet in C major. Although weakened by illness, the composer finds the strength to be on familiar terms with Beethoven, who has just passed away. This is notably the case in the opening Allegro, with its conquering gesture, and even in the finale, which also recalls the ride of the Alder King. In between, a solitary Wanderer meditation, and a Menuetto marked by shifts that one does not expect to find there.

PRODUCTION Jeanine Roze Production