I think I need to be honest and say I’ve been on a bit of a Schubert bandwagon lately – though mostly his symphonic and chamber repertoire – so it was a delight to review this piano album. I started listening to it in the background as I prepared for the day, but kept getting distracted – this album draws the ear and brain into listening intently.

Zimerman hasn’t made a solo recording in about 25 years and on this one, recorded in Japan, his performance is a work of art – not to mention the beauty of the music itself. The keys inserted on Zimmerman’s piano for this recording were handcrafted by him and create an amazingly smooth sound/tone.

It is the first time that Zimerman has recorded these two late piano sonatas of Schubert’s: he’s very careful about creating a natural and unforced performance, and doesn’t want to create ‘definitive’ recordings, as he believes that being a musician is so much more fluid than that. Don’t let this worry you – this is a flowing and delightful recording of two of Schubert’s mature works.

Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings.