Schubert: Works for Solo Piano Vol 1

Barry Douglas interrupts his Brahms series for Chandos to start a new one focusing on Schubert. The first disc, recorded in the Curtis Auditorium of the CIT School of Music last September, includes the late Sonata in B flat, D960, and the Wanderer Fantasy, separated by two songs (Du bist die Ruh and Ungeduld) in arrangements by Liszt. Douglas is flexible and ruminative in the sonata, and fleet of finger and rapid of wrist in the fantasy, where he is also probing in the dark and stormy slow movement. You may balk at the speed of Du bist die Ruh, taken with a lung-challenging slowness that leaves the idea of singing far behind. In general, however, this collection shows Douglas as a congenial Schubertian. url.ie/f1f2