The last three sonatas

The C minor is the first and much the shortest of the last three sonatas. It is a big work in its expressive scope and in the character of its material but, with the exception of the finale, each movement is shorter than the corresponding movement of the Sonata in A minor (D.845) written two years earlier. The opening theme sounds as if a large-scale construction is to be built on it. It resemblance to the theme of Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor suggests that it was shaped for that very purpose and, in fact, the pair of staccato crotchets which are such a prominent feature of the theme are superimposed on the second subject in the long-term classical manner. After that, however, they lose their grip on events, which are poetically motivated by a quite different chromatic figure in the development section, until just before the recapitulation. It is also the chromatic figure which takes the movement to its uneasy conclusion.

The two middle movements postulate a new conflict - between the tonic C minor, which is also the key of the outer sections of the Menuetto, and A flat major, which is the key of the serene first theme of the Adagio and of the trio section of the Menuetto. The remarkably extended construction of the finale depends on the need to resolve that conflict. The decisive point is at the end of the recapitulation when the essentially C minor theme makes a tentatively hopeful reappearance in A flat major. The coda quickly disposes of that threat to sonata logic.

Schubert’s last three piano sonatas – all of them completed in September 1828, less than two months before his death – represent an inspired progression towards his ultimate objective of transcending the limitations of the form while, paradoxically, liberating his lyrical spontaneity from structural constraints.

Though much the shortest as well as the earliest of the three, the Sonata in C minor is a big work in its expressive scope and in the character of its material. The first Allegro begins with a dramatically percussive theme which, classically, would hold the movement together in its unshakeable grasp. Indeed, its resemblance to the theme of Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor would suggest that it was shaped for no other purpose. The two repeated notes are there when the melodic line so attractively opens out in the transition to the second subject and they are gently superimposed onto the second subject itself when it is introduced in E flat major. After that, however, Schubert loosens their grip on events until just before the recapitulation. The development is motivated by a new, melodic rather than percussive, inspiration in the form of a mysterious chromatic figure which, since it is derived from the closing theme of the exposition, falls naturally into place as it takes the movement to its uneasy conclusion.

There is a similar conflict between legato melody and percussive aggression in the Adagio. It is a rondo structure divided between melodic simplicity, as represented by its main theme in A flat major, and a more disturbing element in the staccato triplet figuration which gradually asserts itself after the entry of the first episode in D flat minor. The triplet figuration persists in one way or another through much of the rest of the movement, achieving its most violent expression in an F minor episode – in fortissimo octaves in the left hand – just before a characteristically magical change of mood to F major. Although the last section of the movement restores the main theme in its original form in A flat major, doubts and fears still linger in the harmonies.

Neither minuet (in spite of its title) nor scherzo, the third movement is the finely balanced pivot between the Adagio and the finale. The anxiety expressed by unleisurely outer sections in C minor is not so much offset as encouraged by uneasy A flat major lyricism in the middle.

The conflict between C minor and A flat major is resolved in the last movement. Beside the main tarantella-like theme in C minor, which runs innocently into C major at one point, there are two second-subject themes – the first punched out by right hand crossing over C sharp minor harmonies in the left, the second a comparatively lyrical variant of the first quietly introduced in octaves in E flat major. There is also an eventful development section, devoted mainly to the lyrical variant which passes though a delightful episode in B major into a whole series of variations before arriving at C minor for the beginning of the recapitulation. The first subject retains its C major alternative and the second subject retains its lyrical variant, now also in C major. This encourages the tentatively hopeful A flat major version of the main theme at the beginning of the coda. But no such reversal of sonata logic takes place. The work ends inevitably in C minor.

The Sonata in C minor D.958 is the first of the three masterpieces Schubert wrote in the month of September 1828, when sonata form embraced his lyrical genius without losing its own shape or crushing his spontaneity. You can hear it happening in the first movement. It begins with a percussive theme which, classically, would hold the movement together in its unshakeable grasp. Indeed, its resemblance to the theme of Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor would suggest that it was shaped for no other purpose. The two repeated notes are there when the melody so attractively opens out in the transition to the second subject, and they are gently superimposed on the legato melody of the second subject itself when first introduced in E flat major. But then it disappears. It is not associated with the lovely closing theme of the exposition, and it does not makes its expected early reappearance in the development which, significantly, is dominated by a melodic inspiration in the form of a mysterious chromatic figure derived from the closing theme. The percussive repeated notes reappear only to introduce the recapitulation, and it is the chromatic figure which takes the coda to its uneasy conclusion.

There is a similar conflict between legato melody and percussive aggression in the Adagio. It is a rondo structure with a beautifully simple melody in A flat major as its main theme and no hint of aggression before the key changes to D flat (encharmonically C sharp) minor for the first episode. The new theme is accompanied by smoothly articulated broken chords which, however, give way to staccato triplets, first in the left hand and then in both hands together. The triplet figuration persists even when the A flat major melody returns, but quite harmlessly in an inner part where it does no more than a little harmonic mischief. As soon as the key changes to the minor again the staccato triplets reassert themselves. They achieve their most violent expression in F minor, in fortissimo octaves in the left hand, just before a magical change to F major. Almost as abruptly the mood returns to the minor and, although the last section of the movement restores the main theme in its original key of A flat major, doubts and fears still linger in the harmonies.

Neither minuet (in spite of its title) nor scherzo, the third movement is a carefully balanced pivot between the Adagio and the finale. A trio of not quite untroubled lyricism in A flat major is set between unleisurely outer sections in C minor.

The tonal and emotional embiguities are resolved in the last movement. Besides the main theme in C minor, which runs innocently into C major at one point, there are two second-subject themes - the first punched out by right hand crossing over C sharp minor harmonies in the left, the second a comparatively lyrical variant of the first quietly introduced in octaves in E flat major. There is also an eventful development section, devoted mainly to the lyrical variant which passes though a delightful episode in B major into a whole series of variations before arriving at C minor for the beginning of the recapitulation. The first subject retains its C major alternative and the second subject, which is recalled first in B flat minor, retains its lyrical variant, now also in C major. This encourages the tentatively hopeful A flat major version of the main theme at the beginning of the coda. But no such reversal of sonata logic and no such compromise of the emotional inspiration of the work takes place. The work inevitably ends in C minor.

Sonata in C minor (D.958)

Allegro

Adagio

Menuetto: allegro

Allegro

The Piano Sonata in C minor is the first of the three masterpieces Schubert wrote in that form in the miraculous month of September 1828, just a few weeks before his death. It is also, at least in that it is the most spontaneous of the three, the most inspired.

After the precedent of Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor, Op.111, or even some of Schubert’s own sonata movements the heavily percussive theme at the beginning sounds as though it were designed for the specific purpose of holding the first the first movement together in its apparently unshak­able grasp. Its resemblance to the theme of Beet­hoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor only confirms that impres­sion. Its most promi­nent feature, a repeated staccato crotchet, is in fact incorp­orated in a gently expressive transition passage and it is also quietly super­imposed on the shapely second-subject melody when it is first intro­duced in legato phras­ing in E flat major. But then it disap­pears. It is not associated with the lovely closing theme of the expos­ition and it does not make its expect­ed early reappearance in the development which, though it begins percussively, is seduced into a poetic fantasy by a subversive chromatic figure derived from the closing theme. The repeated notes reappear only to introduce the recapitulation and it is the chromatic figure which leads the coda to its uneasy conclusion.

There is a similar conflict between legato melody and percussive aggression in the Adagio. It is a rondo structure with a beautifully simple melody in A flat major as its main theme. There is no hint of aggres­sion before the key changes to D flat (enharmonically C sharp) minor for the first episode. The new theme is accompanied by smoothly articulated broken chords which, however, give way to staccato trip­lets, first in the left hand and then in both hands together. The triplet figuration persists even when the A flat major melody returns, though now quite harmlessly in an inner part where it does no more than a little har­monic mischief. But as soon as the key changes to the minor again the staccato triplets reassert themselves. They achieve their most violent expression in F minor, in fortissimo octaves in the left hand, just before a magical change to F major. Almost as abruptly, the mood returns to the minor and, although the last section of the move­ment restores the main theme in its original key of A flat major, doubts and fears linger in the harmonies.

Delicately poised between minuet and scherzo, the third move­ment is also a carefully balanced pivot between the preceding Adagio in A flat major, which is the key of the confidingly intimate Trio section, and the finale, which is in C minor like the outer sections of the Menuetto.

The tonal and emotional ambiguities are resolved in the last move­ment. Besides the main theme in C minor, which runs with disarming innocence into C major at one point, there are two second-subject themes - the first punched out by right hand crossing over C sharp minor harmonies in the left, the second a comparatively lyrical variant of the first quietly introduced in octaves in E flat major. There is also an eventful development section, devoted mainly to the lyrical variant, which passes through a delightful episode in B major into a whole series of variations before arriving at C minor for the beginning of the recapitulation. The first subject retains its C major alternative just as the second subject, which is recalled first in B flat minor, retains its lyrical variant, now also in C major. This encourages the tentatively hopeful A flat major version of the main theme at the beginning of the coda. But no such reversal of sonata logic and no such compromise of the emotional inspiration of the work takes place. The conclusion is inevitably in C minor.

Gerald Larner

Like Beethoven’s, Schubert’s last three piano sonatas form a distinct group. Although he couldn’t have said of them, as Beethoven is alleged to have said of his, that they were “written in a single breath,” Schubert put an enormously concentrated and sustained effort into them, as though he somehow knew they would be his last word on the subject. Completed, all three of them, in September 1828 - two months before his death - they are progressively longer and more liberated in construction, culminating in the singularly sublime Sonata in B flat major.

In the first of the three masterpieces Schubert was prepared to take risks but not, at first, without a safety net. The opening movement of the Sonata in C minor begins with the percussive sort of theme which, classically, would hold the structure together in its unshakeable grasp. Indeed, its resemblance to the theme of Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor suggests that it was shaped for no other purpose. The two repeated notes are there when the melody so attractively opens out in the transition to the second subject, and they are gently superimposed on the legato melody of the second subject itself when first introduced in E flat major. But then it disappears. It is not associated with the lovely closing theme of the exposition, and it does not makes its expected early reappearance in the development which, significantly, is dominated by a melodic inspiration in the form of a mysterious chromatic figure derived from the closing theme. The percussive repeated notes reappear only to introduce the recapitulation, and it is the chromatic figure which takes the coda to its uneasy conclusion.

There is a similar tension between legato melody and percussive aggression in the Adagio. It is a rondo structure with a beautifully simple melody in A flat major as its main theme and no hint of aggression before the key changes to D flat minor for the first episode. The new theme is accompanied by smoothly articulated broken chords which, however, give way to staccato triplets, first in the left hand and then in both hands together. The triplet figuration persists even when the A flat major melody returns, but quite harmlessly in an inner part where it does no more than a little harmonic mischief. As soon as the key changes to the minor again the staccato triplets reassert themselves. They achieve their most violent expression in F minor, in fortissimo octaves in the left hand, just before a magical change to F major. Almost as abruptly the mood returns to the minor and, although the last section of the movement restores the main theme in its original key of A flat major, doubts and fears still linger in the harmonies.

Neither minuet (in spite of its title) nor scherzo, the third movement is a carefully balanced pivot between the Adagio and the finale. A trio of not quite untroubled lyricism in A flat major is set between unleisurely outer sections in C minor.

The tonal and emotional embiguities are resolved in a last movement irresistibly motivated by its tarantella rhythms. Besides the main theme in C minor, which runs innocently into C major at one point, there are two second-subject themes - the first punched out by right hand crossing over C sharp minor harmonies in the left, the second a comparatively lyrical variant of the first quietly introduced in octaves in E flat major. There is also an eventful development section, devoted mainly to the lyrical variant which passes though a delightful episode in B major into a whole series of variations before arriving at C minor for the beginning of the recapitulation. The first subject retains its C major alternative and the second subject, which is recalled first in B flat minor, retains its lyrical variant, now also in C major. This encourages the tentatively hopeful A flat major version of the main theme at the beginning of the coda. But no such reversal of sonata logic and no such compromise of the emotional inspiration of the work takes place. The work inevitably ends in C minor.

Anton Diabelli knew how to sell music. His flair for publicity had already ensured him undying association with the greatest of all piano variations and now, having assumed responsibility for the first publication of Schubert’s last three piano sonatas - ten years after the composer’s death - he had the brilliant idea of dedicating them to Robert Schumann, with the name of the dedicatee printed in larger type on the title page than that of the composer himself. He knew, of course, that Schumann was a great admirer of Schubert and that it was partly because of his enthusiasm that Schubert’s music was gathering something of a cult following among the young romantics of the day. Expecting, quite rightly, that Schumann would review the new publication in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, he must have reckoned that a little flattery would do no harm.

So, when the review was duly published, he cannot have been best pleased to find Schumann expressing his reluctance to believe that the three sonatas were, as Diabelli’s publication proclaims, Schubert’s very last works: “Continuing to regard the Trio in E flat as the last and most individual work,” Schumann wrote, “I myself might have attributed them to an earlier period of the composer’s development.” If they were really as late as that, he concluded, they must have been written “on his sick-bed.”

Biographically, of course, Schumann was wrong. We now know that the Piano Trio in E flat was written in 1827 and that the three sonatas in question were completed in September 1828, less than two months before Schubert’s death but by no means on his sick-bed: the String Quintet in C major was still to be written. His musical observations, on the other hand, were accurate, perceptive as far as they go, but based on a misconception. “The sonatas strike me,” he said, “as differing conspicuously from his others, particularly in a much greater simplicity of invention, in a voluntary renunciation of brilliant novelty - an area in which he otherwise made heavy demands upon himself - and in the spinning out of certain general musical ideas instead of adding new threads to them from phrase to phrase, as was otherwise his custom.”

The problem was that, of the twenty or so piano-sonata projects to which Schubert had applied himself before he started on the last three, Schumann could have known no more than five (the three that were published in the composer’s lifetime and the two that followed in the year after his death). Unaware of Schubert’s career-long campaign to achieve mastery of the piano sonata - his persistent and often frustrated efforts over a period of thirteen years to achieve the marriage of his fundamentally lyrical genius with a basically dramatic form - Schumann could not see the late works in perspective. In the broader context, those characteristics which disappointed Schumann are to be seen as indications of maturity rather than decline.

In the same context, and in sequence, Schubert’s last three sonatas represent an inspired progression towards his ultimate objective of transcending the limitations of the form while, paradoxically, liberating his lyrical spontaneity from structural constraints.

Piano Sonata in C minor (D.958)

Allegro

Adagio

Menuetto: allegro

Allegro

The C minor is the first and much the shortest of the last three sonatas. It is a big work in its expressive scope and in the character of its material but, with the exception of the finale, each movement is shorter than the corresponding movement of the Sonata in A minor (D.845) written two years earlier.

The first Allegro begins with a dramatically percussive theme which, classically, would hold the movement together in its unshakeable grasp. Indeed, its resemblance to the theme of Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations in C minor would suggest that it was shaped for no other purpose. The two repeated notes are there when the melodic line so attractively opens out in the transition to the second subject and they are gently superimposed onto the second subject itself when it is introduced in E flat major. After that, however, Schubert loosens their grip on events until just before the recapitulation. The development is motivated by a new, melodic rather than percussive, inspiration in the form of a mysterious chromatic figure which, since it is derived from the closing theme of the exposition, falls naturally into place as it takes the movement to its uneasy conclusion.

There is a similar conflict between legato melody and percussive aggression in the Adagio. It is a rondo structure divided between melodic simplicity, as represented by its main theme in A flat major, and a more disturbing element in the staccato triplet figuration which gradually asserts itself after the entry of the first episode in D flat minor. The triplet figuration persists in one way or another through much of the rest of the movement, achieving its most violent expression in an F minor episode - in fortissimo octaves in the left hand - just before a characteristically magical change of mood to F major. Although the last section of the movement restores the main theme in its original form in A flat major, doubts and fears still linger in the harmonies.

Neither minuet (in spite of its title) nor scherzo, the third movement is the finely balanced pivot between the Adagio and the finale. The anxiety expressed by unleisurely outer sections in C minor is not so much offset as encouraged by uneasy A flat major lyricism in the middle.

The ambiguities are resolved in the last movement. Beside the main tarantella-like theme in C minor, which runs innocently into C major at one point, there are two second-subject themes - the first punched out by right hand crossing over C sharp minor harmonies in the left, the second a comparatively lyrical variant of the first quietly introduced in octaves in E flat major. There is also an eventful development section, devoted mainly to the lyrical variant which passes though a delightful episode in B major into a whole series of variations before arriving at C minor for the beginning of the recapitulation. The first subject retains its C major alternative and the second subject retains its lyrical variant, now also in C major. This encourages the tentatively hopeful A flat major version of the main theme at the beginning of the coda. But no such reversal of sonata logic takes place. The work ends inevitably in C minor.

Sonata in A major (D.959)

Allegretto

Andantino

Scherzo: allegretto

Rondo: allegretto - presto

Schubert begins his Sonata in A major, the second of the last three, with a gesture of far-reaching importance. In the first movement itself the percussive downward leaps in the left hand do not seem very significant. They are not heard again in the exposition, the most obsessive feature of which is the persistent triplet figuration and the most attractive the beautiful E major melody of the second subject. The version of that melody heard at the end of the exposition is particularly inspired and so captivating that it dominates almost the whole of the development. The opening bars take their due place in the recapitulation of course but are given no special emphasis until the coda.

The rhythmic shape adopted by the downward leap at one point in the coda of the Allegro is not unlike that of the left-hand accompaniment to the first theme in F sharp minor of the Andantino. The relationship is uncertain and would not be worth mentioning but for other indirect indications of Schubert’s concern for long-term unity here. The surprisingly vehement middle section - a fantasia tribute to J.S. Bach stylish enough, surely, to have delighted a Bach enthusiast like Robert Schumann - is quite deliberately and equally surprisingly echoed in the next movement.

The beginning of the Scherzo is perhaps another allusion to the opening bars of the work, in spite of its position at the opposite end of the keyboard. Basically, the movement is one of Schubert’s German dances, in A major but with an incongruous intrusion of C sharp minor vehemence in a brilliant descending scale and a tiny echo of the F sharp minor theme of the previous movement. In the middle of the Trio section, which is slower and in D major, the right hand crosses the left in an unmistakable allusion to the opening bars of the first movement.

The relationship between the broadly shaped last movement and the rest of the sonata is left dangerously unsecured until the very end. Reluctant to labour the structural point and happy to luxuriate in the lyrical atmosphere suggested by a main theme derived from his song Im Frühling - “As I sit quietly on the hillside, the sky above so clear…” - Schubert avoids referring back. The entry of the more urgent second subject scarcely disturbs the serenity, in spite of its tendency to veer off course into the minor. It is not until after Schubert has explored the potential for drama in both main themes, has masterfully restored tranquillity, has tested the equanimity of the first subject by fragmenting it between bar-long rests, and has thrust it into a Presto coda that, with a gesture that could almost be ironic, he recalls the opening bars of the work at the very end.

Sonata in B flat major (D.960)

Molto moderato

Andante sostenuto

Scherzo: allegro vivace con delicatezza

Allegro ma non troppo

Schubert’s last piano sonata is his longest, his most daring, and his greatest. Here he discards the long-term structural support of the recurring thematic motif - even one as subtly and as wittily applied as that which links the movements of the preceding Sonata in A major - and at the same time he combines pure song-like melody with authentic sonata form and serenity with structural breadth on a scale that was quite without precedent, even in the late sonatas of Beethoven.

The first movement is built on such a vast scale that a structural motif of some kind can scarcely be dispensed with. The trill and turn heard low down in the left hand, just after the gently articulated announcement of the hymn-like first subject, is an unlikely choice but an inspired one in that is effective not only in inducing a wondering silence, as on its first entry, but also in motivating visionary modulations. It is used straightaway to lead into the eerie displacement of the main theme into G flat harmonies. A derivative from it introduces the F sharp minor second subject- which retains the even crotchet movement of the first subject in spite of the more agitated figuration in the accompaniment - and it reappears with classical regularity at every major intersection thereafter. It brings about the exposition repeat, persuades the development out of its preoccupation with seductive melodic distractions, turns attention back to the first subject, introduces the recapitulation and ends the movement in near silence.

But neither that motif nor any other recurs in the later movements. The slow movement in C sharp minor is poised in its own eternity of tranquillity, or, in the A major middle section, resting on a basis of unshakeable stability. The most prominent feature that the Andante sostenuto has in common with the opening Molto moderato is the silent question preceding the reprise of the C sharp minor section - a question which is answered by the precariously sustained C sharp major harmonies at the end of the movement. The Scherzo miraculously turns the harmonic focus back to B flat without, in its exquisite delicacy, clouding the luminous atmosphere - not even in the somewhat darker and oddly syncopated B flat minor Trio section.

The happiness of the last movement is expressed with a sense of humour to equal Haydn’s. The held octave on G at the start is one witty idea used always with fine timing to tease both rhythmic and harmonic expectations. Lest the movement should seem too frivolous, however, there is an episode with just a suggestion of a hymn in its melody and then - after another questioning silence - a minor-key outburst. But this is so quickly calmed that when it reappears in the recapitulation it can no longer be regarded as a threat. It even goes so far as to take part in precipitating the playful events that lead into the little Presto coda.

Gerald Larner©