Schubert Piano Sonatas

Deyanova is a pianist with a mind of her own, and she doesn’t jib at imposing her own powerful personality on this selection of Schubert’s sonatas. There are two ways of doing this, of course – the one that works and the one that doesn’t – and Deyanova’s mostly does. Her playing has a ringing authority which has been likened to Richter, and her combined sense of musical structure and tonal shading enables her to pull off the near miracle of sustaining interest throughout the half-hour opening movement of the monumental G major Sonata, D894.

It’s good to have two of the unfinished sonatas on these discs, and pleasing that Deyanova chooses not to use one of the several completed editions but to break off undramatically at the point where Schubert wrote his final notes. The present set is a fine achievement.

Wadham Sutton, classical-music.com