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András Schiff – March 11, 2017
Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845
Franz Schubert
1797-1828
The melodic gifts, harmonic adventurousness and emotional intensity of Franz Schubert’s
late works tend to obscure the fact that the composer was only 31 when he died – just as his
star was in ascendance. Schubert spent his entire life in the shadow of Beethoven, whom he
revered. As the older composer was reaching the height of his powers, developing his own
distinctive musical voice, Schubert was struggling to find his own, primarily through the
Lied, a vehicle that capitalized on his melodic brilliance – not one of Beethoven’s strong
points – and his ability to capture the emotional essence of a poem in the piano
accompaniment. It was by means of these mini-dramas that he found the expressive depths
that characterize his last works – whether small or large – and set him on a different route
from that of his idol.
By the time he wrote the Sonata in A minor, D. 845 in the spring of 1825, his name has
become well known in Vienna’s musical circles and he was having some success in getting
his works published. The Sonata appeared in print just a year later, dedicated to Archbishop
Rudolph, Beethoven’s pupil and patron. By then the slow second movement, a theme and
variations, had already become familiar to the public since Schubert charmed audiences with
it whenever he had a chance to perform.
By that time, however, the popularity of the sonata had passed its prime. Popular taste and
economics worked against the form. In that revolutionary age, the daughters and wives of the
new middle class were the main patrons and consumers of music, and they wanted something
less demanding to play on their new fortepianos. Sets of dances, fantasias or bagatelles sold
better than sonatas. But Schubert could not ignore the challenge of the sonata form,
especially in light of his unbound admiration for Beethoven.
This sonata, in fact, appears to owe much to Beethoven. Both its themes and structure look
back at Beethoven’s earlier piano sonatas rather than to the dark, extensive forms of
Schubert’s last tumultuous year. The first movement is in a surprisingly regular sonataallegro form and contains three themes, all of which the composer develops considerably.
The Andante is a set of five variations on a simple theme, reminiscent of, but less quirky
than, some of Beethoven’s themes. The first two variations are progressive elaborations. The
third, by contrast, is somber and becomes increasingly intense. The fourth continues with the
rapid short notes but is far more demanding of the pianist, while the last proceeds in a
mysterious, hushed tone. The theme is not repeated and the movement fades away.
The Scherzo is nervous and stuttering, contrasting with the slow trio, a dreamy, bucolic
dance. The Finale is a rondo, again reminiscent of Beethoven, in which the melancholy,
delicately decorated tune of the rondo contrasts with chordal, aggressive interludes. The two
parts of the theme seem to battle to set the overall mood of the movement, but drama wins
out, building up to a furious coda.
Impromptus, D. 935
Franz Schubert
1798-1828
During the course of his life Franz Schubert poured out a stream of small piano pieces. Given
their miniature form and lyrical keyboard style, they can be seen as extensions of his songs.
They were well suited for performance by the composer himself at the convivial art and
entertainment evenings he loved. He collected many of them in sets, the prevailing format for
publishing purposes; the best known are the two sets of Impromptus and the one set of
Moments Musicaux.
The term “impromptu” had been coined only a few years earlier by the Bohemian composer
Jan Václav Vorisek, whom Schubert probably knew personally. Among other antecedents for
this type of piece are Beethoven’s three sets of Bagatelles. Robert Schumann, whose early
piano music consisted of several sets of “character pieces,” was a great admirer of Schubert
and heir to the genre.
Schubert suffered from syphilis and during the final three years of his life was often
extremely ill. Nevertheless, he experienced a respite during a summer vacation in Graz in
1827, which he considered as “the happiest days I have known for a long while.” Schubert
returned to Vienna but had difficulties settling down to compose. In October, however, he
experienced a remarkable surge in creativity, even as he realized that he was dying. Included
in his large output were the two sets of four one-movement piano pieces known as the
Impromptus. The publisher gave the title to the first set, D. 899, but Schubert apparently
applied it to the second set himself.
Actually, the name “Impromptu” is a misnomer since none of the pieces under that title were
improvised. Whether they emerged in their final notated form from the composers’
improvisations at the piano, we do not know. Perhaps a better – albeit clumsier – translation
would be “just a little something jotted off at the spur of the moment.” And yet, anyone
familiar with Schubert’s impromptus can hardly call them trivial.
Schubert tried to have the Impromptus published, but with limited success; the second set, D.
935, did not go to press until 1839, a full 11 years after the composer’s death. While the
pieces in the first set are all in ternary (ABA) form, those of the second set have more varied
structures. Schumann believed that they had been intended as the movements of a sonata, but
in the autograph they are numbered five to eight, suggesting that Schubert meant them as a
sequel to the four of D. 899.
No. 1 in F minor, Allegro moderato, does indeed bear the mark of a sonata movement, more
because of its similarity in pianistic style to the opening movements of the composer's later
sonatas than in its structure. It represents, however, an expanded concept of form typical of
most Schubert’s later works.
No. 2 in A-flat major, Alegretto, is one of Schubert’s best-known piano pieces. The gentle
theme, here used as a refrain, is contrasted with a more lively repeated arpeggiated trio
middle section.
No. 3 in B-flat major, Andante, is the longest of either set of Impromptus, is a set of five
variations on a theme that Schubert had already used twice before: once as the third entr’acte
for the failed play Rosamunde and again in the String Quartet in A minor, D. 804. Four of the
variations emphasize lyricism and figurative dexterity, but the third variation in B-flat minor
introduces a gripping note of pathos above and beyond the obligatory variation in the
opposite mode.
No. 4 in F minor, marked Allegro scherzando, with its Hungarian flavor, is the most
lighthearted of the set. It is a rondo with a refrain of trills and rapid scales more likely
revealing the composer’s sense of humor than any pedagogical intent. It ends in a wild presto
coda.
Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946
No. 1 in E-flat minor
No. 2 in E-flat major
No. 3 in C major
Franz Schubert
1797-1828
When Schubert died at age 31, the bulk of his compositions remained in manuscript form,
unpublished. During his lifetime, the majority of his compositions were performed at
“Schubertiads,” informal gathering of friends and colleagues. Only during the second half of
the nineteenth century were many of these works rediscovered and some performed in public
for the first time. Among the unpublished manuscripts were three piano pieces, dated May
1828. They are clearly not the composer’s final thoughts on the subject, two being in draft
form and the third only in a pencil sketch. In 1868, Johannes Brahms edited the pieces
anonymously and had them published under the title Drei Klavierstücke.
We do not know what Schubert intended to do with these Klavierstücke; most likely he
meant them to be part of a larger set. In style they resemble the Moments musicaux and the
Impromptus, single-movement pieces designed for home music making, all the rage in the
early nineteenth century. Schubert’s single-movement pieces also resemble the Lied and
come across as songs without words, replete with all the emotional expressiveness and subtle
shading that the composer had perfected in his 600+ Lieder.
All three of these pieces explore the art of modulation:
No. 1 adopts the form of a scherzo and trio – complete with the requisite repeats – consisting
of an agitated journey from E-flat minor to E-flat major. Schubert loved this kind modal
ambiguity and used the device increasingly in his final compositions. It comes as something
of a shock as he transitions into a contemplative middle, or trio, section in a key about as far
away from E-flat as one can get: B major (six flats vs. five sharps).
No. 2 reverses the mood changes of No. 1. It begins as a gentle lullaby that serves as a rondo,
between three episodes, once again exploring distant keys.
No. 3 opens as a spirited dance with syncopated rhythms – a foretaste of Dvorák’s Slavonic
dances. But the middle part (in the distant D-flat major) returns to the pensive atmosphere
that colors so many of Schubert’s late piano works.
Piano Sonata in G major, D. 894
Franz Schubert
1797-1828
Schubert wrote the Sonata in G major in the fall of 1826, shortly after completing the “Great”
C major Symphony and the G major String Quartet. His mood was relatively happy, his
syphilis, which he had contracted in 1822, in remission. It was a time of pleasant sociability
with his close friends, especially the genial Josef von Spaun, to whom the Sonata was
dedicated.
At the time of its publication in April 1827, when piano sonatas were past their prime, the
publisher tried to fool the public by titling the work “Fantasie, Andante, Menuetto und
Allegretto,” implying that it was four separate pieces. A long article in the prestigious
Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, however, treated it as a sonata in everything but
name, referring to the four pieces as “movements.“ More important was the critic’s overall
evaluation of Schubert, distinguishing his individual and original voice from the host of
Beethoven imitators.
Although the publisher did everything to disassociate the four movements of this Sonata,
their sequence and overall nature can clearly be nothing else. In addition, Schubert appears to
have been focusing on the idea of contrasting pianistic textures throughout the Sonata. Time
and again, he juxtaposes thick chordal sonorities with more delicate cantabile, trebledominated passages. Schubert’s penchant for repetition is also in evidence.
The first movement is the first piece to which Schubert added both a time signature (12/8)
and tempo marking (molto moderato e cantabile). The time signature is particularly
important because the most striking element in the movement is the rhythm of its first theme:
an exaggerated limping motive that takes up the first six beats of the measure, plus an upbeat
motive of five eighth notes. For the second theme, the rhythm evens out to a slow waltz. In
the development Schubert affects a stormy incarnation of the opening theme, setting up the
kind of juxtaposition of lightheartedness and tragedy that characterizes much of his late
works.
The Andante begins with a placid cantabile melody in ternary form. A switch to the minor
mode and a thicker texture in the middle section introduces a sudden storm. The return to the
opening section alters the original melody with a figurative decoration in the upper voice,
thereby creating a larger ABA’ structure.
The Menuetto has clearly left the realm of the Classical minuet, but it is not a Beethoven
scherzo either. Both Minuet in B minor and Trio in B major fall into the category of the
Ländler, the peasant precursor of the waltz – a Haydn legacy.
The final Allegretto is a jolly rondo with two extensive and harmonically adventurous
episodes.
Program notes by:
Joe & Elizabeth Kahn
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