Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 03/22/2019, uploaded on 03/22/2019

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sonata in G minor by Clara Schumann

Sonate für Klavier g-moll, the composer’s first and the only large-scale composition in the genre, was not published until 1991. In 1841, shortly after her long-awaited marriage to Robert Schumann, Clara wrote the first two movements of the sonata titled as Sonatine. Allegro und Scherzo as a Christmas gift to her husband. Robert expressed his appreciation in a letter to Clara’s mother Marianne Bargiel: “utterly delicate and much purer in their writing than anything she has written before . . .” Clara finished the work the following month by adding the Adagio and Rondo movements, and she referred to it as a sonata in their joint diary. The first movement is in concise sonata form filled with many tempo changes and effective chromaticism. The closing theme becomes the main motive of the ensuing movement in E-flat major, Adagio con espressione e ben legato. The third movement, Scherzo, was published in 1845 as a part of 4 Pièces fugitives, Op.15. The Sonata closes with a finale in five-part rondo form with a brisk coda.

- Hyunjung Rachel Chung