This seventh (and last) volume in Schiff's Schubert sonata cycle spotlights the young composer, starting with the E major work (D157) which, at the age of 18, he chose as his official No. 1. Schiff plays it with a delectable, springlike freshness and tonal charm – banishing every vestige of the ''impersonality'' the insert-note writer warns us to expect in the opening Allegro ma non troppo. His delicate keyboard 'orchestration' is no less a delight in the slow movement, with its plaintive reminders of Mozart's Barbarina and her lost pin. I enjoyed his rhythmic swing in the B major Scherzo – danced as it were by villagers rather than courtiers. And how clearly its abrupt ending leads us to expect the finale that never came.
It is easy to understand why the E major Sonata (D459) of the following year first appeared in print, posthumously, as Funf Klavierstucke. Each of the five movements inhabits a world of its own. And each is as unpredictable in sequence of ideas and modulation as in actual keyboard texture. Schiff himself revels in the music's romantic pre-echoes, not least in the demonstrative finale unusually headed Allegro patetico.
The disc is completed by the A major Sonata of 1819, the last of Schubert's youthful essays in the genre before a four-year break, but the first of these early works to find a regular place in the repertory. Its gracious, lyrical charm is caught by Schiff in a reading of winning simplicity. No detail is overlooked (there are endless subtleties to enjoy just from his left hand) but never does his point-making intrude. Even in the spirited final Allegro his relaxed approach suggests not a hard-working concert pianist but a Schubert playing at home for the delectation of his friends.'