John Halbrooks wrote:

>A glaring hole in my collection is my lack of Schubert Piano Sonatas,
>particularly considering that Schubert is one of my favorite composers.
>Any suggestions on where to start with these, both in individual sonatas
>and individual performances?

If you like Schubert and have still to start on the sonatas, you're in for
a treat.  Most people will tell you to start at the end, with the great
B-flat major (D.960).  It spans the whole width of emotions from quiet
reflection to frantic exuberance and has some of the loveliest melodies
this most melodious of composers came up with.  Then you might want to
go for slightly earlier works in a similar vein (D.840, D.850 and D.894)
before moving on to the immidiately preceding D.958 and D.959.  The latter
may be (only slightly) tougher nuts to crack.  There's a little more
dissonance, wandering from the big plan, and what Alfred Brendel calls
something like a feeling of a thin layer of order overlaying chaos.  After
that, you're free to fill in the gaps on earlier sonatas that take your
fancy, many of which are uncompleted.

Brendel (Philips) probably has the most complete recording catalog, and
would usually be a reliable choice.  I still like my Ashkenazy D.960,
which was my personal introduction, but I don't believe he has recorded
any others.  Top of the bill in my book are the recordings of Radu Lupu
on Decca/London.  These are far from complete, but cover most of the later
sonatas.  In the more tender and melancholy passages especially, Lupu's
delicate touch seems to epitomise the human Schubert, rather that the
god-like prodigy.  I also like Ana Kravchenko's D.850 and D.564 (Teldec),
though her emotional bandwidth seems a little smaller than aforementioned.

good luck,
Ruben