Originally recorded in 1994 and reissued in 2007 by the small Swiss label Divox, these performances touch on a little-heard aspect of his output: his more than 400 short dances for piano, of which a few dozen are heard here. These dated from all the phases of Schubert's career, and it's not always clear for what purpose he wrote them. Many are purely occasional works, but Italian pianist Paolo Bordoni gives them a somewhat weighty reading overall and finds works that justify his approach, which wouldn't work for every set of dances. But here, in sets from the middle and later part of Schubert's career, the music can stand up to the dynamic contrasts and the big sound Bordoni gives them. The 12 Ländler, D. 790, range over quite a bit of harmonic territory, for example, and he catches the balance and flow among them nicely, with pauses between the individual dances but not enough to disrupt the sense of the group as a whole. Bordoni also unearths some very unusual pieces to serve as entr'actes, including the single variation Schubert wrote on in response to Anton Diabelli's requests for variations on his waltz, the one for which Beethoven sent in 33. It's quite a somber little piece, and it makes you wonder why Schubert happened to think in those terms. In the earlier sets of dances, Bordoni's readings feel a bit heavy, but the program works well on balance. Notes are in German and English.
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