Audite Lucerne

These previously unreleased live recordings from Lucerne present Sir András Schiff with two composers rarely found in his discography or concert programmes: Domenico Scarlatti and György Kurtág. Though separated by centuries, both are masters of musical miniature. Although Schiff had already engaged with Scarlatti during his student years, the Baroque composer gradually disappeared from his repertoire. In Lucerne, he returned to Scarlatti with renewed insight, performing thirteen carefully selected sonatas in a dramaturgically shaped sequence. In response to the live setting, Schiff plays with bold risk-taking, vivid characterisation, and an acute sensitivity to sound. From György Kurtág's Játékok ("Games") - a diary-like collection of piano miniatures - Schiff presents an equally curated selection, incorporating suggestions made by Kurtág himself.

He did not thrust himself into the limelight but put himself, with economical, clear gestures, entirely at the service of the music: amongst the conductors of his time, Karl Böhm epitomized the anti-star. In the summer of 1964 he delighted the Lucerne audience with a compellingly flowing and cantabile reading of Bruckner’s Seventh – of course at the helm of “his” Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he was also to perform a buoyant Hindemith concerto six years later.