In the first movement he avoids Uchida's slightly studied reverse accents and tempo fluctuations, evoking Richter's prism-like, line-oriented sonority within a more objective interpretive aesthetic. For instance, Andsnes brings out the extraordinary harmonic juxtapositions presented in the exposition's second theme through changing tone color and voicing rather than by modifying the basic tempo. The eloquent slow movement also is well sustained, partly by virtue of Andsnes' textural diversity--you'll notice how the pianist's subtle and purposeful shifts in balance within the repeated triplet accompaniments insure against blandness.

He paces the Menuetto a little faster than most, generating long-lined tension and a rare, welcome feeling of one beat to the bar. Although the finale is lithe and weightless at the start, Andsnes slows down ever so slightly to better accommodate the music's increasing harmonic density.

You might look to Andsnes as a golden mean between the brusque, Beethovenian intensity of Brendel's first (and still best) recorded version on Vanguard and the soft-focused architecture and infinite gradations of touch Wilhelm Kempff serves up. Ian Bostridge's text-driven, awesomely controlled vocalism often strikes listeners as illuminating or mannered, yet I can't see anyone taking issue with Andsnes' warm, sensitively detailed keyboard support.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

"Mr. Andsnes treats the mood swings in the C minor Sonata with straightforward musical integrity and plays with vigor, clarity and sweep. The tender Adagio emerges as one of Schubert’s most affecting slow movements. In the finale Mr. Andsnes’s brilliant technique allows him to set a bracing tempo and maintain it effortlessly throughout all the awkward twists, giving the music a controlled wildness.
In a group of lesser-known lieder Mr. Bostridge sings with keen sensitivity to the text and expressive vocal inflections. The recording also includes six engrossing fragments of songs and piano pieces that Schubert never completed.
The performers give vibrant accounts of the aborted pieces, stopping cold when they cut off. An Allegretto in C for piano of nearly five minutes comes across as strangely exuberant music full of playful but repetitive passagework. Perhaps Schubert thought it sounded a little trivial and gave up. If he could have heard Mr. Andsnes’s scintillating performance he might have finished it."

Anthony Tommasini, NEW YORK TIMES