Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D.960

My first encounter with this piece (specifically, the second movement) was in the desolate opening scenes of Richter: The Enigma, Bruno Monsaingeon's documentary on pianist Sviatoslav Richter. Once again, the dynamic i identified in the earlier post about Ribena Man has kicked in - how can any other recording ever match up to Richter's dark, passionate clarity?

Schubert is one of the (many) composers whose music I haven't really paid much attention to in the past. For some reason, I had the mistaken notion that everything he'd written was as cheerfully bubbly as the 'Trout' Quintet - where I got that notion from, I have no idea, since I'd listened to so little of his work in the first place. Now, thanks to Naxos and the NUS library website, I'm happily exploring Schubert's repertoire and making up for lost time and past ignorance. Now to find me a full recording of Richter playing that last sonata...

Speaking of Richter - I was looking at his recordings on the online record stores a couple of months back, and was flabbergasted to find that the out-of-print Richter / Beethoven CD I gave away so casually almost 2 years ago (wanting to free up precious space on my CD shelf) is selling for at least US$25 (and, on Amazon.co.uk - a staggering 51 pounds!!!) on the internet marketplace. I had no idea it was worth that much. I'm now wondering if I would have kept it, if I had known. I think not - the fact remains that I didn't like the music in the album (Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto, and his Piano Sonata in A flat major, 'Funeral March', that I had to play for my Diploma exam - oohh... not-good memories...). But I might have had more awareness of the value of the gift, and might thus have taken more pleasure in the giving. As it was, I thought the person I gave it to was doing me a big favour by allowing me to make space for other, better (haha!) recordings on my CD shelf. Ah the ignorance of youth!
...
...