Description
Schubert Piano Sonatas D959 & D960 is an album by Dong Hyek Lim, released in 2022.
“These sonatas are deep, dark, late Schubert,” says Dong Hyek Lim, who has recorded two of the three epic piano sonatas produced by Schubert in the final year of his short life: No. 20 in A D959 and No. 21 in B flat D960. “From the time I started learning them, I had it in mind to record them. They triggered my emotions so deeply. I feel privileged that I can now present my thoughts and ideas about Schubert.”
Dong Hyek Lim’s last solo album on Warner Classics was a programme of Chopin, centred on the 24 Préludes. BBC Music Magazine noted that he ran “the gamut between dark turbulence and pastoral tranquility with absolute assurance,” while Gramophone marvelled at “impeccable phrasing that lives and breathes”.
Lim feels that “Schubert occupies a place between late Beethoven and Romanticism … His music needs to be played in a disciplined way. That is a challenge for me – we are all born with a temperament, and I am a very romantic person … I try to give his music a controlled shape. I feel very comfortable playing Schubert – I feel I must play it in a Classical way, but I must also let it sing.”
