Pianist Schiff rises to challenge of weighty 'Last Sonatas'

Certain artistic projects are steeped in an air of reverence from the moment of their conception. So it is with Sir Andras Schiff's "The Last Sonatas," a three-part exploration of the three final sonatas written by the four quintessential composers of the Classical era: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. (Washington Performing Arts presented Part 1 here in March.) The very idea is permeated with the air of the elegiac, of lost perfection, channeled by a performer who sometimes seems to move ...