Daniel Barenboim

Programme to include:

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor, D.845
Interval
Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat, D.960

Daniel Barenboim concludes his series of Schubert's piano sonatas with two towering masterworks.

His Schubert playing has been described by Barry Millington in the London Evening Standard as 'taking the listener into another realm'.

At times it feels as though the last of Schubert's three sonatas in A minor (D.845) is staring over into the abyss - and little wonder as the opening unison is borrowed from his song 'The Gravedigger's Homesickness' ('Abandoned by all, I linger at the edge').

The heart-rending phrases of Schubert's final sonata, D.960, appear to carry the weight of the world on its prophetic shoulders - tragically he passed away less a month after signing off the manuscript.

On his memorial stone, the great Romantic poet Franz Grillparzer reflected - 'Music has here entombed a rich treasure, but even fairer hopes.'