William Youn - Piano Sonatas I - Music & Performance - CD

After the highly acclaimed recording of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, pianist William Youn, who was born in South Korea and has been living in Munich for many years, is now devoting himself to a new major project - the complete recording of all piano sonatas by Franz Schubert. On the first album, the pianist spans a wide arc from the first to the last sonata: On the first CD of this album, he starts with the last, the great B-flat Major Sonata D. 960 from Schubert's year of death in 1828 - and contrasts it's sometimes dreamy sounds with the fresh, self-confident first Sonata in E Major D. 157, which was written within a few weeks in 1815. The second CD follows with the light Sonata No. 13 in A Major D. 664, the mysterious conglomerate of Sonata No. 9 in F-sharp Minor D 571 / 604 / 570, without the unfinished fourth movement, and finally the momentous Sonata No. 14 in A minor D. 784 - a work of astringency and severity rather unusual for Schubert.