When he first recorded the Reliquie ten years ago for Erato (nla), Dalberto gave us just the first two movements that Schubert found time to complete—as do Brendel (Philips) and Imogen Cooper (Ottavo/Harmonia Mundi). But here, in Vol. 3 of his Schubert sonata cycle, he plays the last two as well, just as Schubert left them, like Richter in his live Philips recording of the work. Again like Richter he favours a more leisurely conception of the opening movement's moderato than Brendel or Cooper, and he also repeats the exposition. True, his overall timing for this movement is only 18'36'' as against Richter's 22'26'', but as in the 1980 Erato recording, so again here I felt that deeply thoughtful as it all is, this music needs a stronger sense of direction. Though Brendel's accelerandos at all moments of heightened drama may not be to everyone's liking, his reading has much more vitality.
The Andante in its turn is marginally faster from Dalberto than we often hear it, in fact just over one and a half minutes faster than from Brendel, who makes it more laden. But Dalberto's understatement is not without its own chaste beauty. I'm glad he makes no attempts to complete the scherzo and finale: as from Richter, so again here, the 'fading out' where Schubert himself stopped is curiously moving. But I think a slightly less deliberate tempo would have given the finale more sparkle.
Nothing on the disc gave me more pleasure than the F major Variations on a song-like original theme, written in 1815, when Schubert was only 18. Dalberto gives free range to his imagination here, with a beguiling tonal palette to heighten his potently contrasted characterization. I was also glad to make the acquaintance of the benign little Andante in C dating from as early as September 1812, for which Dalberto finds an affecting simplicity. The shorter dances are played with taste and charm. The recording itself is truthful.'