Franz Schubert: Sonata in B flat major, D. 960
Robert Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6

"Music is something more than the score - it's a living creature and so needs to undergo constant change." [Booklet Notes] A priceless lesson that pianist Javier Laso claims he learned while practising and playing during his childhood. A philosophy I've always been a proponent of myself. You don't perceive a Schubert Sonata, or any piece of music for that matter, from the same mindset when you are twenty, forty or sixty years old. A composer's intentions are limited by theoretical music rules and laws when it comes time to notate musical thought on paper. The impulse, or emotive impetus behind a work's creation is missing from the page and it's up to the performing musician to find the key that will decipher its inspiration.

What's admirable about Javier Laso's interpretation is that despite following and applying the dynamic and expressive markings and annotations religiously (for example, most of the left-hand notes in the profound Andante sostenuto movement of the Schubert are marked to be played staccato, and unlike most other pianists he plays them as such) his overall approach sounds free of restraints and fresh, as if improvised in the moment. Or, again in the same movement, when near the end the key suddenly shifts to a luminous C sharp major, Laso's touch becomes lighter, as if uplifted. And the same could be said about his outlook on Robert Schumann. He fittingly demarks and stresses the dichotomy between the two alter egos of Florestan and Eusebius within the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6. So much so that during some of its pieces you can sense that maybe Schumann's mental decline was already in its early stages at that point in time. At least that is what I hear in Laso's expressive account of the final piece (audio clip below).

Remarkable playing filled with individual insights ... a musician to follow as his mindset deepens!