Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/20/2015, uploaded on 09/03/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Franz Schubert’s instrumental music was largely neglected during his lifetime; his publishers preferring only to put in print his lieder and shorter piano pieces. Thus, Schubert only saw three of his twenty-one piano sonatas published. Furthermore, he was forced to endure publishers appending artificial, if not completely erroneous titles, to his works (in some cases even changing the titles altogether). Such was the case with his Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major, which has ever been known as the “Fantasy” Sonata. Composed in October 1826, it was Schubert’s last sonata to be published before his death. Tobias Haslinger, who thought the first movement too congenial and restrained to be an opening sonata-allegro, printed the work under the title “Fantasia, Andante, Menuetto, and Allegretto,” and consequently bequeathed upon the work its epithet. Indeed, the opening movement, marked Molto moderato e cantabile, is perhaps the most subdued and technically correct sonata form movement he ever composed. It certainly stands in stark contrast to its counterpart, the dramatically intense Allegro, in the String Quartet No. 15 in G major composed only a few months earlier.

In a gentle compound meter, the first movement begins with its hushed principal melody. Rarely do shadows pass over the bright tone of this movement, and the music seems to glide forward without any effort at all. The following Andante is made to embrace greater contrasts with a tender opening melody juxtaposed against dramatic forte sections in the relative and parallel minor keys. A graceful Minuet and Trio, the third movement begins with rather fervent chords in B minor before subsiding into an elegant tune in the relative major. The repetitive chords, however, dominate much of the minuet. In contrast, the Trio section in D major is blithe and charming. The rondo finale, marked Allegretto, returns somewhat to the unhurried feeling of the first movement, yet is certainly imbued with a greater amount of energy. A witty conclusion to the sonata, the finale sparkles with brilliant passagework, yet concludes with a tender restatement of the refrain’s opening measures marked Un poco più lento.      Joseph DuBose

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Piano Sonata No.18 in G Major, D.894 (31’)Schubert

Also known as the “Fantasie” Sonata, this was hailed by Schumann as “the most perfect in form and conception.”  Its expansiveness and serenity remind us of Beethoven’s middle period and its opening has an interesting likeness to Beethoven’s 4^th Piano Concerto.  Schubert was devoted to Beethoven’s music, although living only a few blocks away in Vienna, Schubert’s shyness stopped him from introducing himself to Beethoven.

In the first movement, for the very first time he utilizes the time signature as 12/8 (twelve beats to the measure with an 1/8^th note getting a full beat) and the tempo indication “molto moderato.”  The combination of these two markings results in the downbeats being much farther away from each other, allowing the composer to explore more fully the use of distant keys and modulations.  The only other sonata to carry the time signature 12/8 is the last sonata he wrote, the B-flat, D.960.  When the passage rises up in the minor key, he uses a “fff” marking only once.

The second movement has one of Schubert’s most-used approaches to “andante”, exhibiting gentle outer sections in combination with more dramatic inner sections.  It begins with a songlike melody, and then it suddenly takes a turn into dramatic outbursts in the minor mode.  The movement concludes with a tender return of the opening theme and the addition of a little coda. 

The third movement menuetto has one of the most beautiful Landler (a folk dance popular in Austria around his time) Schubert ever produced.  Exiting from the traditional classical minuet, it begins with a brusque dance in b minor, and is then interrupted by the innocence and lightness of a swinging trio.

The allegretto movement has some pondering if Schubert has Beethoven’s Op. 31 No. 1 in mind as they share exactly the same time signature and key.  The pastoral rondo theme is followed by dancelike episodes that lead us into the sublimity of a simple song whose return in major mode is one of the most joyous moments in the sonata.  Its melodic entry moving downward by steps resembles the beginning of Fruhlingstraum (‘Dream of Springtime’) from Winterreise.  Here again we see another example of how Schubert inserts moments of delusional hope in the midst of despair, an important expressivity he stresses in the Winterreise.  The coda then brings the entire work in a complete circle to where it begins, and evaporates into thin air…      Weiyin Chen

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.