Maurizio Pollini, Daniele Pollini: Schubert Digital

In June 2022, Maurizio and Daniele Pollini went to Munich's Herkulessaal to record a new studio album dedicated to three essential aspects of Schubert's piano music: the sonatas, the cycles of short pieces and the piano music for four hands. This was a project of the heart for father and son, who shared a special love for the Viennese composer, and it was the first time that both had rehearsed and performed a piece for four hands together: the elegiac F minor Fantasy from the year of Schubert's death in 1828. For the great Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, it was to be his last recording. He died in March 2024 at the age of 82. And so, this touching and at the same time profound album by two generations of musicians becomes a legacy and a hopeful look into the future: ‘With the recent death of my father, the perspective with which I imagined the record and the whole process of its realisation inevitably changed’, says Daniele Pollini. ‘What presented itself as a very special occasion turned into a unique event, in fact unrepeatable. I am therefore very happy to have had the opportunity to make this album dedicated to Schubert and to have shared with my father what was his last recording.

Tracklist:

Piano Sonata in G major D 894
1. Molto moderato e cantabile
2. Andante
3. Menuetto. Allegro moderato
4. Allegretto

Moments musicaux D 780
5. No. 1 in C major: Moderato
6. No. 2 in A flat major: Andantino
7. No. 3 in F minor: Allegro moderato
8. No. 4 in C sharp minor: Moderato
9. No. 5 in F minor: Allegro vivace
10. No. 6 in A flat major: Allegretto

Fantasia in F minor for Piano Duet D 940
11. Allegro molto moderato
12. Largo
13. Allegro vivace
14. Tempo I