Search - Shai Wosner, Franz Schubert, None :: Schubert: Piano Sonatas, 6 German Dances

Following on his critically acclaimed disc of Brahms and Schoenberg, Shai Wosner s second release for Onyx focuses on the music of Franz Schubert. Here he plays a selection of music including the composer s two late sonatas in fabulous performances that are sure to enhance his rising-star status. These works are in many ways polar opposites. Written in 1825, a year when the composer s health was robust and his finances in good order, the powerful, unfinished sonata D840 is monumental, stark and monolithic. The sonata D850, written at a time in the composer s life when he was broke, lonely and fighting with his publishers, is remarkable for its sunny disposition. This late masterwork was one of the few sonatas Schubert was able to publish during his lifetime and it brought him a very welcome payday of 300 florins.