Piano Sonata in G major (D.894)

The masterly combination of lyrical inspiration and structural breadth represented by Schubert’s Piano Sonata in G major would be surpassed only in the last of his sonatas in 1828. The extent of the construction of the Molto moderato e cantabile is implicit in the quietly sustained G major harmonies of the first two bars: the wide-spread, firmly based chords moving in their unrushable 12/8 metre will clearly need time and space to evolve their potential. In fact, they motivate a first subject so substantial as to require a three-part second subject to balance it. The passionately dramatic development section is matched in the Andante by minor-key episodes introduced in violent contrast to the G major material that opens the movement. The B minor Menuetto has a severe side to it but there is also an exquisite waltz in the B major middle section. As for the final Allegretto –“Let him avoid the last movement who lacks the imagination to solve its riddles,” said Schumann – an unhappy C minor episode at its very centre is a timely intrusion in a rondo so resourcefully put together as apparently to be running on clockwork.

The Piano Sonata in G major D894 is the last of four sonatas – beginning with the “Reliquie” fragment and including the A minor D845 and the D major D850 – in which Schubert sought to expand the structural scope of a form he had so far mastered only on a small scale. In the present work he succeeded to such an extent that the first movement is as broadly conceived as any before that of the monumental last Sonata in B flat major. The extent of the construction of the Molto moderato e cantabile is implicit in the quietly sustained G major harmonies of the first two bars: the wide-spread, firmly based chords moving in their unrushable 12/8 metre suggest that they will need time and space to evolve their potential. They motivate a first subject so substantial as to require a three-part second subject to balance it. The development is as passionate, as angry even, as the exposition is serene. After an experience as disturbing as that, reassurance requires not only a regular recapitulation but also an extended coda.

There is a similarly dramatic element in the Andante. It was not Schubert’s original intention that there should be but, having completed the unargumentative third and fourth movements, he seems to have realised that the conflict had been too soon resolved. Certainly, he rewrote the Andante to include episodes in G minor and D minor in violent contrast to the faintly nostalgic G major material which opens the movement and which reappears in varied form after each of the minor-key intrusions. The B minor Menuetto does have a severe side to it but that is more than offset by its own gruff sense of humour and the exquisite valse sentimentale in the B major middle section. Robert Schumann, who admired this Schubert sonata above all others, said of the final Allegretto, “Let him avoid it who lacks the imagination to solve its riddles.” While one could wish that he had been less cryptic about it, one can hazard a guess that what he had in mind was the near-palindromic construction with its unhappy C minor episode enshrined at the very centre.

The Piano Sonata in G major is described in the manuscript as “IV. Sonate.” While we cannot be certain exactly what Schubert meant by that, it is significant that the three previous piano sonatas, including the unfinished C major (“Reliquie”), are all large-scale projects. It seems that in 1825, probably with the prospect of publication in mind, he had set about developing his hard-won mastery of the form over wider time spans. He had turned yet again to the key of A minor to make even more of its dramatic potential in D845 and, although he had failed to achieve his monumental ambitions in the C major “Reliquie” D840, he had been able to draw on apparently inexhaustible resources of nervous energy for the D major D850. Then in 1826 in the G major D894 he found the lyrical inspiration to sustain structural proportions that would be surpassed only in the last of his sonatas in 1828.

All three of the piano sonatas completed in 1825 and 1826 were in fact published within a few months of their composition, even though the G major was issued not as a sonata but as “Fantasia, Andante, Menuetto, and Allegretto” - presumably because Haslinger felt it was easier to sell four short pieces than one long one. There is, of course, no doubt about the sonata credentials of D894, the first movement of which is far closer to the classical model than that of the B major D575. It is, on the other hand, twice as long.

The extent of the construction is implicit in the quietly sustained G major harmonies of the first two bars: the wide-spread, firmly based chords moving in their unrushable 12/8 metre and their Molto moderato e cantabile tempo suggest that they will need time and space to evolve their potential. They motivate a first subject so substantial as to require a three-part second subject to balance it - a dance tune in right-hand octaves, a variation on it in a brilliant string of semiquavers at the top of the keyboard, and a closing theme which briefly seems to anticipate Johann Strauss. The development is as passionate as the exposition is serene. To begin with, the minor-key anger expressed by the first subject leaves the dance tune charmingly unconcerned but, eventually, it too is drawn into the argument. After an experience as disturbing as that, reassurance requires not only a regular recapitulation but also an extended coda.

There is a similarly dramatic element in the Andante. It was not Schubert’s original intention that there should be but, having completed the unargumentative third and fourth movements, he seems to have realised that the conflict had been too soon resolved. Certainly, he rewrote the Andante to include episodes in G minor and D minor in violent contrast to the faintly nostalgic G major material which opens the movement and which reappears in varied form after each of the minor-key intrusions. It is true that the B minor Menuetto has a severe side to it but that is more than offset by its own gruff sense of humour and the exquisite valse sentimentale in the B major middle section.

Robert Schumann, who admired this Schubert sonata above all others, said of the final Allegretto, “Let him avoid the last movement who lacks the imagination to solve its riddles.” While one could wish that he had been less cryptic about it, one can hazard a guess that what he had in mind was the near-palindromic construction with its unhappy C minor episode enshrined at the very centre. The C minor material comes too late to threaten the prevailing carefree atmosphere - and, besides, it is immediately repeated in the major - but it certainly puts heart into a rondo which is so resourcefully put together as apparently to be running on clockwork. When it winds down the sonata just comes to an end.