Album: Schubert, Late Piano Sonatas – Lief Ove Andsnes (EMI)

Whether read as a triology or three distinct works, viewed as the testament of one who knew himself to be dying or an uncanny mirror of the human condition written by a man with no premonition of his mortality, Schubert's last piano sonatas are as profound as those of Beethoven. Lief Ove Andnes's scrupulously articulated performance of the C minor, A major and B flat sonatas is a worthy addition to a groaning catalogue: less personalised than Uchida, less monumental than Schiff, a touch warmer than Brendel. Yet the stand out performance on this understated double-disc set is of the D major Sonata.

Download this: The exquisitely voiced 'Con moto' of the Sonata in D