Less than a year after the release of his recording of Schubert's Impromptus (BIS-2614), Ronald Brautigam now presents two of Franz Schubert's late masterpieces, the Sonatas D 959 and D 960, played here on a fortepiano built by Paul McNulty after an instrument by the Viennese instrument maker Conrad Graf from around 1819 and which presumably resembles the instrument on which Schubert composed. Although it is tempting to see Schubert's last works as the testament of a doomed artist who felt his end approaching, the reality is quite different: The composer showed vitality, optimism and enormous working power. His last two sonatas also show that he had reached a new stylistic and formal level, having successfully emancipated himself from the Beethovenian model. These sonatas took a long time to establish themselves, not least because of their length, which initially worried music lovers and pianists. Today they are considered Schubert's best works, alongside others from the last years of his life, such as the String Quintet in C major and the song cycle Winterreise.