Description

Schubert’s unfinished compositions, that unique legacy in the history of music, are today considered among the most compelling and popular of his works. It was a fundamental clash of styles, Classical and Romantic, that forced Schubert to leave some of his most ambitious works unfinished, and yet, like the ancient ruins, their fragmentary state also elevated them to a higher artistic plane. The Canadian fortepianist Ludwig Sémerjian performs Schubert’s Unfinished Sonata in C major and the Three Impromptus left in manuscript draft form in 1828, the composer’s last year. The instrument used in the present recording was built by the Viennese maker Conrad Graf in 1824. The piano is now part of the great collection of historical keyboard instruments of the Accademia Bartholomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy, where this CD was recorded.