Sonata in A minor (D845)

The third of Schubert’s three sonatas in A minor has several parallels with Mozart’s in the same key. The anxiety implied by the uneasy main theme of the first movement, introduced in quiet octaves in the opening bars, haunts the development section, just as in the Mozart sonata. Although, unlike Mozart’s, the main theme is recapitulated in A major, an extended coda ensures that there will be no consolatory ending.

Having so firmly established the mood of the work, Schubert goes on to indulge himself, uncharacteristically, in a virtuoso theme and variations in C major. Or so it seems until the end of the delightfully frothy second variation, which is followed by a violent attack of C minor in the third variation. It takes two more variations to recover from the shock.

The A minor Scherzo expands a usually concise form to accommodate variety of harmonic diversions, including an F major trio section in charmingly relaxed contrast to the obsessive treatment of the basically three-note theme of the outer sections. Its A major ending is not, however, an anticipation of the direction that will be taken by the following Rondo. Like the finale of the Mozart sonata, it includes a conciliatory A major episode but ends implacably in the minor.

A glance at a chronological list of Schubert’s piano sonatas – with so much of the work concentrated into two short periods (in 1817 and 1828) and with so many examples left incomplete – might well give the impression that his approach to the form had no clear purpose to it. In fact, the mastery he was to achieve in the last year of his life was the result of a deliberate, though obviously intermittent, campaign to solve the problems encountered by a composer whose lyrical genius was essentially incompatible with the piano sonata as he found it.

What he did in the end was develop the form to accommodate the personality rather than trim the personality to fit the form. But everything he did on the way to the transcendental achievement represented by the last three sonatas had its value – not only such successes as the early inspiration in A major (1819) and the breakthrough in G major (1826) but also the failures, the unfinished works which at least identified the dead ends. The three Sonatas in A minor – written in 1817, 1823 and 1825 respectively – are particularly interesting as the product of a conscious and consistent effort not only to work within the form as he found it but also to capitalize on its dramatic potential. Having demonstrated to himself what he could do in this line by means of a strict economy in the second work in the series, D784, he made an even more radical approach in the present Sonata D845. After that, if he was to further his relationship with the form, he could only change direction, as in fact he did.

Although the first movement of D845 is less rigorously motivated than that of its predecessor in the A-minor series – in that it avoids domination by any one motif – it is also less liberal emotionally. The anxiety implied by the uneasy main theme, introduced in quiet octaves in the opening bars, is confirmed by the crescendo of syncopated chords and the drumming march rhythms that follow. Bearing in mind that it is presented as a lively dance in C major, the second subject ought to lighten the atmosphere – which it does to some extent but, since it cannot free itself of the drumming march rhythm, not as much as it might. It has no part to play in the development, which is haunted by the anxieties associated with the main theme, and its recapitulation in A major does no more than raise false hopes. An extended coda, culminating in aggressively drummed march rhythms and the main theme in heavily emphatic double octaves, ensures that there will be no such consolatory A major ending as there was at the equivalent point in the previous Sonata in A minor.

Having so firmly established the mood of the work, Schubert goes on to indulge himself, uncharacteristically, in a virtuoso theme and variations in C major. Or so it seems until the end of the delightfully frothy second variation, which is followed by a violent attack of C minor in the third variation. It takes two more variations to recover from the shock. One of them escapes into an unreal key area of its own and the other, apparently settled at first in a landscape of C major hunting horns in triplet rhythms, is deflected off-course before it is finally secured in C major.

The A minor Scherzo expands a usually concise form to accommodate variety of harmonic diversions, including an F major trio section in charmingly relaxed contrast to the obsessive treatment of the basically three-note theme of the outer sections. Its A major ending is not, however, an anticipation of the direction that will be taken by the following Rondo. Like the finale of Mozart’s Sonata in A minor K310, on which it seems to be based, it includes a conciliatory A major episode but ends implacably in the minor, Schubert recalling the closing bars of the first movement to confirm the point.which it finally does with an explicit echo of the last two chords of the first movement.