This is maybe the most astonishing sonic transformation I've heard yet in any RBCD-to-SACD conversion (though it should be noted that it's all thanks to the excellent new remastering). The difference to the previous CD incarnations I've heard of the D845 is so huge I had to get up and do some research to triple check whether there perhaps existed two different studio recordings of the work by the Master (there should not, and to all I know there cannot: this must be the same 1957 Moscow taping as in all previous LP and CD versions). Lots of tape hiss, but the payoff is a notably good piano sound, a completely different sense of acoustic environment, and a doubled or tripled perceived width of the "soundstage." Quite amazing, in fact, what they have accomplished in the Prague studios.
So if you are a piano lover, this is an absolute must: Schubert's greatest sonata played by the greatest Schubert player living or dead, coupled with an intense-but-suprisingly-delicate account of the D850 (which was taped live in Prague the year before and has previously been available from Praga on RBCD).
Those preferring their Schubert finely manicured need not bother, though. For all the rest of us, a life-transforming showcase of Schubert's genius sharing the same world with the best of Beethoven. I think only Pollini compares, but makes less of an existential impact.
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