When an earlier disc in Dalberto’s complete Schubert cycle came my way (6/94), I admired his poised pianism and sensitive respect for the printed text but thought him not at his freshest in communication. How good, then, to be able to hail this latest volume for its spring-like imaginative vitality and spontaneity – not least in the main work, the D major Sonata of 1825. He conveys all the youthful eagerness of the opening Allegro vivace with a stylish lightness and clarity. In the second movement, allowed a liquid, con moto flow, he opened my ears anew to its magical textural felicities and tonal contrasts. And after a dancing Scherzo, what insouciant charm he conceals beneath the clock-like precision of the finale’s leading theme. The Galopp and Eight Ecossaises are similarly on their toes, each in a telling little world apart yet artfully unified as a set.
But not all is Viennese joie de vivre. This discerningly planned, naturally reproduced disc (recorded at the Salle de Chatonneyre, Corseaux, Switzerland) opens with the early, not fully completed F minor Sonata – an arresting portrait of the 21-year-old Schubert not yet wholly reconciled to the procrustean demands of sonata form while plainly overwhelmed by the drama of Beethoven’s Appassionata. Here again Dalberto draws delectable contrasts of colour from his instrument while constantly savouring the unpredictability that contributes so much to even the immature Schubert’s genius. In toto, a very welcome reminder, for me, of the Dalberto who so very deservedly won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978.'