Wilhelm Kempff The Schubert Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon CD

“When Schubert sounds his magic harp, do we not feel as though we are floating on a sea of sound, freed from everything material?”  WILHELM KEMPFF

With a virtuosity that was very real, yet never drew attention to itself, Kempff’s Schubert was at its heart penetrating and inspired and the depth of his performances could convey the intimacy of a chamber ensemble or project the works as great symphonies for keyboard. It was Kempff’s perception that it was the function of a pianist’s virtuosity to serve, not to exploit; always the music had to be paramount.  Like many great artists he was notably erratic, but any impulsiveness or spontaneity was always driven by artistic will and the search for new discoveries.  Such was his inspiration, his recordings over his 60 year career – most of it for DG – are a treasure house of discovery; his Schubert recordings being among the finest examples, and not least remaining reference recordings of the repertoire.

“At his best, he played more beautifully than any of us.” ALFRED BRENDEL

“No other pianist has communicated Schubert with a greater sense of his final transcendence of earthly pain and travail . . . you are simultaneously made aware of a pianist who brought an Apollonian grace to even the fiercest Dionysian pages of Beethoven and who, arguably, found his truest voice in Schubert. Kempff's tonal sheen and translucence, his magical elixir, remain unique in the history of piano playing.”   GRAMOPHONE

“Huge, implacable, intense and deliberately uningratiating, these are towering performances which emphasize that Schubert’s range was no less great than Beethoven’s – and Kempff’s no less than anyone’s.”   BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE