The fact that David Fray is French rather than German or Austrian, and the fact that Schubert, whose Moments Musicaux, Allegretto in C minor, and first set of Impromptus Fray plays here, wasn't a composer at the dawn of his career but at the twilight of his life, may put this disc out of contention for some listeners because it challenges preconceptions about who can play Schubert, as well as just who Schubert was. There's no denying Fray has the effortless technique to play these pieces, though they are not the most ...
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The fact that David Fray is French rather than German or Austrian, and the fact that Schubert, whose Moments Musicaux, Allegretto in C minor, and first set of Impromptus Fray plays here, wasn't a composer at the dawn of his career but at the twilight of his life, may put this disc out of contention for some listeners because it challenges preconceptions about who can play Schubert, as well as just who Schubert was. There's no denying Fray has the effortless technique to play these pieces, though they are not the most difficult works in the repertoire. There's no question that his weighty textures, deliberate tempos, and autumnal tone seem more suited to Brahms than to Schubert. What makes Fray's Schubert convincing is neither his technique nor his tone, but the combination of the two, filtered through his acute sensibilities. Fray clearly believes that Schubert's late piano works reveal a composer obsessed with mortality (and Schubert had cause to be; he'd been diagnosed with syphilis only a few years...
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