Thanks to everyone for the rich and informative recommendations concerning
Schubert's sonatas.  To get me started I have ordered a selection of
performances by Lupu, Brendel, and Richter, all that I can afford on my
adjunct-faculty budget.  When I get a chance I will give Schnabel, Goode,
Curzon, et.  al.  a try and report back.

Speaking of Schubert, a couple of months ago someone mentioned the new
Telarc disc with Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing
Schubert's "Great" and "Unfinished" symphonies.  I have recently acquired
this disc, and though you might wish to take any claims from me (an
admitted neophyte) with a grain of salt, I must recommend this disc.
Although it is not a HIP performance, the precision of the Chamber
Orchestra certainly lends it that feel (to these ears, at least).  It
reminds me somewhat of the feel of the Hanover Band's Schumann symphonies.
The precision of the strings in the infamously difficult finale is
particularly striking.

A couple of interesting points:  in the notes Mackerras writes that in the
manuscript the opening horn motif is in 2/4 rather than 4/4, "which now, if
played as Schubert marked it, takes us without the traditional accelerando
(not marked by Schubert) into the Allegro, ma non troppo." Does anyone know
of other recordings that seem to accept this interpretation? To me it seems
to give the motif a kind of momentum that I have not heard in other
recordings.

Also, Mackerras mentions a scherzo that Schubert sketched but did not
orchestrate for the B minor symphony.  Do any recordings include versions
of this scherzo? If so, how does it change the feel of the symphony? It
seems that it might make it seem more "unfinished" to end the work in
triple time.

John Halbrooks