Surely no key used by Schubert unlocked more personal secrets than A minor. That was certainly my own feeling after listening to this performance of the third and last of his three A minor Piano Sonatas, written just three years before his death. A few small differences in timing confirm that it really is a new recording (in fact the third of Brendel's new Schubert cycle for Philips, the others being the Sonatas in D major, D850 and A minor D784 on 422 063-2PH, 11/88, and the Sonata in C minor, D958 on (D 422 076-2PH, 4/89) made in West Germany in September 1987. But in general approach he remains very much the same Brendel we met on LP in this work some 14 or 15 years ago (also Philips), a Brendel more attuned to the forward-looking romantic in Schubert than to any reminders of his classical inheritance.
This is particularly evident in the first movement, where the immediacy of his response to the mood of the moment results in an elasticity of pulse not heard from the lyrically appealing Lupu (Decca) or the taut, tense Pollini (DG). All three readings are wholly convincing in their own special ways, with Brendel excelling in what SP, in his review of the older recording, described as the ''narrative'' nature of the music. Brendel certainly brings home what he himself meant when once writing that in comparison with Beethoven ''Schubert's sonatas happen.... Events do not unfold with graceful or grim logic. They could have taken anothcr turn at many points. We feel not masters but victims of the situation.''
Though marginally faster than before, the Andante is still slower than that of his two rivals allowing intimate cherishing of detail as well as potently contrasted variations. I particularly enjoyed his smiling charm in lighter moods. His Scherzo (now 36 seconds faster than of old) is the most urgent of the three in feeling despite his rivals' very strong dynamic contrasts and sharp accentuation. The Trio brings its full Landler-like assuagement without exaggeration of the requested un poco piu lento. Rhythmic freedom when moving into and out of A major in the middle of the finale might perhaps be the giveaway for anyone asked to guess which of the three performances was Brendel's. But all three are as strongly motivated as they are fluent.
Final choice could well reside in what you want as coupling, in Brendel's case the Drei Klavierstucke dating from the composer's last spring. In the first in E flat minor he again omits the second Andantino episode in accordance with Schubert's own second thoughts, the rich repose he draws from its main Andante interlude in B major made me wonder if Chopin might have recalled it when writing the B major meditation in the course of his own turbulent F minor Fantasia. I also loved the mystery and nostalgia with which Brendel in turn offsets the idyllic lyricism of the main theme in No. 2 in E flat major, likewise his way of dissolving obsessive rhythmic patterning into liquid melody in the D flat major 3/2 Trio of No. 3 in C. At all times Brendel enjoys his right pedal to the full, which in a resonant venue, gives the recording a richness of sonority commensurate with his own warmth of heart.'