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Schubert 4 Hands

£14.67

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Erato

Cat No: 2173296578

Barcode: 5021732965783

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 21st November 2025

Works

Schubert, Franz

Allegro in A minor, op.144 D947 'Lebenssturme'
Fantasia in F minor for piano duet, op.103 D940
Fugue in E minor, D952
Rondo in A major for piano duet, D951

Artists

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

Works

Schubert, Franz

Allegro in A minor, op.144 D947 'Lebenssturme'
Fantasia in F minor for piano duet, op.103 D940
Fugue in E minor, D952
Rondo in A major for piano duet, D951

Artists

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

About

Pianists Bertrand Chamayou and Leif Ove Andsnes join forces to record Schubert’s magnificent Fantasia in F minor, presenting a landmark Schubert 4 Hands album. This release arrives 40 years after Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia’s legendary CBS recording and 60 years after Benjamin Britten and Sviatoslav Richter’s historic Aldeburgh Festival performance.

The duo delivers breathtaking interpretations that could establish this recording as the new reference for Schubert’s Fantasia. The album pairs the Fantasia with other Schubert four-hand works composed in 1828, the year of the composer’s death, offering a deeply intimate and historically informed programme.

“…four hands, one voice, and that voice was Schubert's. I am very grateful to have been present to hear it.” – Edinburgh Music Review

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Fantasia for Piano Four-Hands in F Minor, Op. Posth. 103, D. 940 - I. Allegro molto moderato
2

Fantasia for Piano Four-Hands in F Minor, Op. Posth. 103, D. 940 - II. Largo
3

Fantasia for Piano Four-Hands in F Minor, Op. Posth. 103, D. 940 - III. Allegro vivace
4

Fantasia for Piano Four-Hands in F Minor, Op. Posth. 103, D. 940 - IV. Finale. Allegro molto moderato
5

Allegro for Piano Four-Hands in A Minor, Op. Posth. 144, D. 947 'Lebenssturme'
6

Fugue for Piano Four-Hands in E Minor, Op. Posth. 152, D. 952
7

Rondo for Piano Four-Hands in A Major, Op. 107, D. 951

Europadisc Review

Even among the miracles from the final year of Franz Schubert’s all-too-brief life (including the last three piano sonatas, the second set of Impromptus, the String Quintet and the songs of Schwanengesang), the F minor Fantasia for piano four hands ranks highly. Its single-span cyclic structure harks back to the ‘Wanderer Fantasy’ of some five years earlier, while it is also the crowning glory of Schubert’s unique contribution to the four-hand piano repertoire. Several celebrated teams have laid down accounts of it over the years, including Sviatoslav Richter alongside Benjamin Britten, and Radu Lupu with Murray Perahia – the latter regarded as a benchmark performance since its release in 1985.

Forty years on, a new account has begun attracting significant critical acclaim (including from Gramophone magazine and BBC Radio 3’s Record Review), and we’re very pleased to be able to feature it here. Released on the Erato label (part of the Warner Classics stable), it features two of the most thoughtful pianists on the scene today, Bertrand Chamayou and Leif Ove Andsnes. They first performed the F minor Fantasia together in 2016, and this recording, made on a Steinway instrument in the warmly sympathetic surroundings of St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb in May 2025, serves as eloquent testimony of their close artistic relationship.

As with the fabled Lupu-Perahia recording, this new disc features two players sounding as one, minutely attuned to one another’s ideas and technique. Yet, compared with the earlier account with its dreamily-veiled perfection, what strikes the listener immediately is the range of colour introduced to Schubert’s rich textures from the very outset. Over the gentle accompaniment set up by Chamayou, Andsnes spins a melody in which every note is placed with a care for the overall shape of the melody, and with a limpid tone that is deeply affecting. Chamayou’s sensitive pedalling plays its part in making the long opening paragraph so memorable, while the sudden turn to louder dynamics that follows the major-key version of the main theme, conveys a sense of drama without agogic or dynamic distortion. Every aspect of the remarkable expressive journey that comprises the Fantasia’s first section has clearly been thought through with the greatest care, yet somehow feels completely natural.

That’s also the case with the brief but imposing F sharp minor Largo section, combining rhythmic security with rhetorical grandeur, and exquisitely executed trills when it briefly gives way to a sunnier F sharp major. The scherzo-like Allegro vivace has a sparklingly elfin lightness combined with a brisk but commendably steady pulse, while the transition to the heart-stopping return of the Fantasia’s main theme is superbly negotiated, and the contrapuntal detail of this final section (a reminder of Schubert’s late studies with Simon Sechter) is delineated with remarkable clarity and formidable grandeur.

That absorption with counterpoint is also evident in the Fugue in E minor, D952, given a stately but clear-voiced performance with a decidedly late-Romantic feel. Before that, however, is another work from Schubert’s final year, the A minor Allegro ‘Lebensstürme’, D947. In both these works, it is Chamayou who takes the upper part, though the two pianists are so inextricably collaborative that I defy you to tell the difference. In particular, the rhythmic alertness, rhetorical power and subtle command of colour, texture and nuance set this masterpiece confidently alongside the F minor Fantasia as a masterpiece of the genre, and it likewise goes straight to the top of recommended modern recordings. There’s a special magic to their trance-like traversal of the pianississimo C major section, and an infectious buoyancy to the closing thematic group.

This thrillingly compelling recital ends (with Andsnes once again taking the upper part) with a marvellously genial, quietly radiant performance of the Rondo in A major, D951, its successive parts unfolding with scarcely a ruffle yet each in turn beautifully characterised. It sets the seal on one of the finest Schubert discs we’ve heard in many years, rich with insight into this fascinating aspect of the composer’s final year, and fully the equal of the great music it contains. As Gramophone has already observed, ‘An instant classic’!

Reviews

Leif Ove Andsnes and Bertrand Chamayou are thoughtful musicians, and it’s immediately apparent from these affectionately searching accounts that they possess an emotional synergy. The great F minor Fantasia finds the Norwegian spinning seamless lyrical lines over the Frenchman’s cushioned bass. ... Recorded sound is warmly realistic. Clive Paget

The Guardian 14 November 2025

The pianists open with one of the most fully realised interpretations of the Fantasie in F minor since Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia set down their standard-setting version in 1984... Chamayou and Andsnes pull out all the stops in their judiciously paced Largo, yet happily avoid the emphatic accents with which many duettists impede the music’s long-lined flow. ... An instant classic. Jed Distler (Recording of the Month)

Gramophone January 2026

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Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Schubert 4 Hands

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Works

Artists

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Reviews

Also Available

£13.34

£12.83

£17.43

£27.55

£78.15

Condition Information

Condition Information