Schubert: Sonata in B-Flat Major, D. 960 & Moments musicaux, D. 780

Chronique

You know what's cool about Dejan Lazic's Schubert B flat major Sonata? He doesn't try to beat the masters at their own game. He doesn't try to out-drama Schnabel or out-intensity Richter or out-slick Brendel or out-think Pollini or out-sing Kovacevich. Dejan Lazic, a young Croatian pianist, doesn't have to. He's got his own way of doing things, his own point of view, and his own way of singing Schubert's great song of life and love and death. It's passionate, sure, but Lazic's a young man and can't help himself. More importantly, it sounds completely thought through. Lazic knows that no matter how long the heavenly lengths of the work, the performer has to know exactly how he or she is going to get from one end of it to the other. More importantly yet, it sounds completely improvised. Lazic knows that no matter how familiar he is with the work, its bottomless depths and endless heights will always confound the traveler through its heavenly lengths and the performer always has to be ready to go with the inspiration of the moment. But most importantly of all, Lazic sounds like he's completely at one with the music. Length, height, depth: all these are measurements. In the end, Lazic knows that it was the qualities beyond them, Schubert's heart and soul and spirit, that make the B flat Sonata one of the most precious of all piano sonatas. Lazic's "filler," the set of Six Moments Musicaux, are nearly in the same league: sweet, bitter, funny, quaint, coy, and utterly endearing. A terrific performance, especially as preserved in Channel Classics' clear and translucent sound.
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