Hope and resignation, sorrow and joy, detachment from the world and a zest for life – in his final three piano sonatas, Franz Schubert weaves together stark contrasts into a deeply moving musical cosmos. These works are at the heart of a recital by the legendary pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja, who appears in our piano series. Her recording of Schubert’s late sonatas was hailed by the press as a revelation. The magazine Rondo wrote: “Elisabeth Leonskaja takes such a surprisingly and overwhelmingly commanding place at the forefront of the discography of these works in recent decades that one can hardly believe one’s eyes.”