Martin Helmchen begins a complete recording of Schubert’s piano sonatas, with Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 a Double Album. This is the first of four double albums to be released between now and 2028, the bicentenary of the composer’s death.

The German pianist has spent his musical life with Schubert as a companion. Having played all of his major works, he decided it was time to embark on this adventure. In his view, Schubert demands from the performer “constant virtuosity that is never needlessly complex, set against sober interiority, the exuberant joy of the Ländler, and bouts of dramatic madness”.

Recording a complete body of work also meant studying the scores carefully and tackling the question of the movements left unfinished by the composer. Should we stop at the precise point where Schubert stopped composing simply because Schubert either ran out of time or did not have enough money to buy music manuscript paper?

Helmchen has chosen to complete these movements, inspired by the recordings and above all the analyses of the eminent pianist Paul Badura-Skoda. This first volume presents sonatas composed between 1815 (Schubert was 18) and 1825. The entire cycle has been recorded on a Bösendorfer piano at the Kronberg Academy.

Martin Helmchen, Piano