January 21, 2011: Pollini’s performance of this sonata can now be heard in its entirety, without interruption, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EClFYa3APA8
Maurizio Pollini performs the Schubert A major sonata, D. 959. Pollini recorded this performance in December, 1983 at the Musikverein, Großer Saal, in Vienna. This video was created from a cassette recording I purchased in 1987, shortly after it was issued by DG (serial number 419 230-4). The liner notes indicate that Pollini dedicated the performance of this sonata “to the memory of his dear friend Rainer Brock.” Brock was Deutsche Grammophon’s supervising recording producer not only for many of Pollini’s early piano recordings (the Chopin Preludes, the Schubert A minor sonata and Wanderer Fantasie, Das Klavierwerk of Shoenberg, for example) but for virtually all of the performances of Claudio Abbado, who was reported to have wept openly upon learning of Brock’s death in 1986. (Brock’s discography is available here: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Rainer+Brock )
Movement 3: Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio. Un poco piu lento