Violin Sonata in A minor D385 (1816)

Schubert’s first thee violin sonatas were written when he was no more than 19 but remained unpublished until eight years after his death when they were issued, somewhat patronisingly, as “Sonatinas.” Certainly, deriving as they do from Mozart and bypassing the ten Beethoven examples as though they didn’t exist, they are not enormously ambitious. They are more than domestic entertainments, however – particularly the two four-movement works in minor keys.

The present Sonaata in A minor makes a liberated point at an early stage, when the assertive first entry of the violin dramatically expands the intervals of the main theme introduced by the piano in the opening bars. From then on it rarely goes in the direction convention would lead one to expect. The melodious Andante in F major is unusually shaped in that, rather than developing its material, it presents it a second time in a different key before returning it to the harmonies to which it belongs. The Menuetto is not so much a minuet as a driven minor-key scherzo in the modern style. Any uncertainty about how the work might end is settled in the last movement by two comparatively aggressive episodes of triplet figuration, after which the uncompromsing closing bars are more or less inevitable.

Schubert’s first thee violin sonatas were written when he was no more than 19 but remained unpublished until eight years after his death, when they were issued, somewhat patronisingly, as “Sonatinas.” Certainly, deriving as they do from Mozart and bypassing the ten Beethoven examples as though they didn’t exist, they are not enormously ambitious. They are more than domestic entertainments, however – particularly the two four-movement works in minor keys.

The present Sonaata in A minor makes a liberated point at an early stage, when the assertive first entry of the violin dramatically expands the intervals of the main theme introduced by the piano in the opening bars. From then on it rarely goes in the direction convention would lead one to expect. Indeed, the first-movement recapitulation gets into a tonal situation with no classical precedent as the main themes are recalled in the (by ordinary standards) wrong keys. Having put things right, Schubert then takes another risk in the closing bars. The melodious Andante in F major is also unusually shaped in that rather than developing its material it presents it a second time in a different key (A flat major) before returning it to the harmonies to which it belongs. The Menuetto is not so much a minuet as a driven minor-key scherzo in the modern style. Any uncertainty about how the work might end, with perhaps a conciliatory gesture to A major, is settled in the last movement by two comparatively aggressive episodes of triplet figuration passing between the violin and the piano left hand: after that the uncompromsing closing bars are more or less inevitable.