Schubert's last three piano sonatas (D958-960) are his crowning achievement in the form and are the logical and worthy successor to Beethoven's last three sonatas. Many pianists only tackle these three monumental works after many years of study and experience, and it was in the later part of his career that the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau chose to record them. 2003 also marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Arrau, an artist who was associated with Philips from the 1960s until just a few months before his death in 1991.