''Franz Schubert. Piano Sonatas Complete—I'' so the label reads, leading me to suppose that though not Dalberto's first encounter with Schubert on disc, this release marks the start of a brand new cycle for Denon. If so, then how apt that it should include what is now commonly hailed as Schubert's first surviving piano sonata, a three-movement work in E dating from 1815, when he was 18. Everything about it proclaims the child as father of the man, and nothing more than its rondo-shaped Andante, with a plaintive main theme (subtly varied on each return) convincing me that Schubert knew all about Mozart's Barbarina and her lost pin. Dalberto plays it with discerning sensitivity, which he complements with splendid rhythmic elan and general vitality of spirit in the two flanking movements. Here his only competition comes from Kempff, in a seven-disc boxed set (DG (CD) 423 496-2GX7). But in the A minor Sonata of 1825 (the composer's third and last in this key) he is of course up against not only one of his most distinguished first-prize-winning predecessors at Leeds, but also those dedicated Schubertians, Brendel and Cooper.
I found much to enjoy in Dalberto's opening movement, done with a happy compromise between classical discipline and romantic impulse, and his invigorating Scherzo. But the performance is let down by the second movement and finale. Detail in the variations is unstylishly over-interpreted, with 'prettifying' fluctuations of pulse that if acceptable just once at a concert are bound to sound mannered after frequent hearings. As for the finale, Dalberto's tempo for the main theme is too fast to be sustained without disruptive awkwardness in certain contrasting episodes. Yet nothing raised my eyebrows higher than his lead into the central episode in A major, where he takes the liberty of inserting one of those sudden, silent pauses so often used by Schubert (though not here) when approaching a phrase, or switch of key, needing special emphasis. In both these two movements I would unhesitatingly recommend Lupu (Decca), Brendel (Philips) and Cooper (Ottavo/Harmonia Mundi) in preference.
The disc is completed by 12 of the 34 Valses sentimentales (plus a Waltz in A flat dating from the same year as the A minor Sonata), all of them tastefully enough played though because only a selection rather than a complete, self-contained set, they do inevitably create a 'bitty' impression in toto. The recording is clear and bright.'