If a pianist is gonna start a new Schubert piano sonata cycle, why not announce intentions by starting off with D960? William Youn includes the repeat and starts off slow and austere, highlighting, discreetly, some left hand playing, while keeping the long Molto moderato moving forward smoothly. He manages to bring out all voices with superb clarity without overemphasizing anything, and he uses pauses expertly, not overdoing those, either. He delivers right hand figures with perfect weight and duration for each note, he delivers supremely clear accompaniment, and then, of course, he delivers superb bass trills. So basically flawless is Youn's playing that one might, just for a second, think it's
too perfect. He's gotta botch something. Youn's playing is not the most emotive around, so I guess there's that, but that hardly counts as a flaw with playing like this. Typically, I don't really think of Youn as a hard hitting pianist, because that's not his thing, but here he shows he can do so when so inclined. In the Andante sostenuto, Youn delivers lovely melodies, and the accompaniment is halting. Maybe that's a flaw, except for the perfect execution and realization, which Youn amplifies when he speeds up and plays the middle section with more lyricism and tension, and some terse, powerful left hand playing. Youn plays the Scherzo at a brisk, clear pace, and again his clarity of voices really stands out. One can follow the insistent, perfectly poised left hand, or the brightly colored melodies emerging form the right with equal ease. Youn starts the concluding movement firmly but not with a massive bang, and almost like Zimerman, he sort of clips it a bit. This means that the fortissimo playing later has more impact, and the gently insistent, indeed unyielding left hand playing sounds quite compelling, somehow drawing attention away from the melodies, though not really. Very nice. As predicted. Less predictable is the rushed coda, which adds a nice touch. He closes the disc out with D157. Whenever I heard the opening, memories, never too old, of Volodos' recording comes to mind. Youn does things differently. He zips through the Allegro ma non troppo, delivering a less beautiful take, obviously on purpose. It's more about propulsive energy. The Andante likewise gets played briskly, and somewhat unusually, Youn does not play with unlimited beauty, instead focusing on simplicity. It works, but sounds colder than Volodos. He closes things out with a crisp, light Menuetto. He plays slightly against expectations in the sonata, but delivers.
D664 starts off the second disc of the set. This sonata can never sound too beautiful, and Youn is just the guy to demonstrate that. The listener need only wait until the first arpeggio to relish the insanely delicate touch he deploys, and he delivers the entire movement with an at times almost eerie steadiness. The dynamics alter gently, and the music at times sounds serene to the point of near stasis, with time itself suspended as each note coaxes the listener's ear. Allegro moderato has rare been so ideally moderate. In the Andante, Youn ups the beauty and serenity even more. Somehow. As the music rises gently in volume to the climax, it sounds inevitable and while loud, it remains calm. And then, Youn plays the concluding Allegro almost stupid beautiful to open. He neither over- nor under-emphasizes the rhythmic component of the movement, keeping things moving along at a nice pace. No one, and I mean no one, has delivered a better little A Major. Next comes the cobbled together D571/604/570 sonata. Right away, in the opener, the music sounds like the accompanying text is missing. Youn plays with multiple, quiet levels at once, and he creates a sense of drama that makes me hope he ends up accompanying some equally accomplished singer in Schubert's song cycles. In the middle, before the return of the opening material, Youn plays the melody with almost inhuman beauty. The second "movement" does not really sound of a piece, of course, but Youn does his level best to make it fit, and he introduces a bit of left hand weight. The last two movements blend in, and again Youn demonstrates his ability to play with ridiculous beauty in the concluding Allegro. The set closes out with the A Minor D784 sonata. This sonata fares best with a bit of bite and strength added into the mix. Youn starts off the Allegro giusto with a dark, brooding austerity. The left hand trill that leads to the first instance of loud playing sounds foreboding, but Youn ultimately does not deliver thundering playing. For those demanding imposing fortissimo playing, Youn may disappoint, but the tradeoff is that the music sounds more controlled and desperate, yet restrained. The Andante finds Youn playing with his customary beauty, and then the Allegro vivace finds Youn playing with more grit and drive, making it obvious that the opening movement sounds exactly the way he wants. To be sure, others hit harder in this movement, too, it's just that everything here is what the pianist wants. So, D784 does come off well, if not as comparatively well as the other sonatas on offer here.
Superb sound.
A purchase of the year.