★★★★☆
Schubert, in the final year of his short life, feared he was dying and hoped he was not. Some doctors thought his symptoms were neurotic (this was Vienna, after all), others suspected a consequence of his mercury treatment for incurable syphilis. Schubert, 31 years old, kept on composing between bouts of vomiting, headaches and excruciating pain in his joints. Among the awesome outpouring of 1828 are the great C major symphony, the unsurpassed string quintet, three last piano sonatas and the so-called “Swansong” song cycle.
Apparently trivial by comparison are four works for piano duo, intended for home use. They include a Fantasia in F minor whose formal perfection fascinates composers of every description. The most celebrated recording was made by Benjamin Britten with the Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter, two midlife gay men who each found something about themselves in this delicate and deceptive domestic fantasy.
This new recording by the Frenchman Bertrand Chamayou and the Norwegian Leif Ove Andsnes embraces all four of Schubert’s 1828 four-handers. While less revelatory than the Britten-Richter expedition, and more cautious besides, their interpretation delivers a sense of Schubert in his mortal confusions, advancing new melodies and flicking them from one hand to the other, a moment’s defiance followed by sombre reflection, the whole work encompassing a state of mind that words could not express. The reprise of the opening theme in the finale is almost too poignant to bear, only for Schubert to unite it with his second theme in a summit of hushed tranquillity.
The other three four-handers are more upbeat, written in the months of May and June when the sun shone and doctors promised possible cures. Musically, they trickle along like a springtime brook, a never-ending stream. Franz Schubert’s life ended on November 19, 1828.
