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Topic: Suggest a Schubert Sonata  (Read 8829 times)

Offline aslanov

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Suggest a Schubert Sonata
on: May 19, 2009, 08:32:40 AM
Thanks!

Offline gep

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Re: Suggest a Schubert Sonata
Reply #1 on: May 19, 2009, 09:08:05 AM
Any of the later sonatas, particularly the last 3 + the "Sonata Fantasia", and most notably the very last, D960. There is so much to find there....
In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music. Anyone who thinks otherwise is not worth talking to (Shostakovich)

Offline cloches_de_geneve

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Re: Suggest a Schubert Sonata
Reply #2 on: May 19, 2009, 06:54:13 PM
I would discourage D960 -- it is hopelessly overplayed and, besides, Schubert wrote at least another 8 sonatas of the same sublime level, for example:
D959 (perhaps the most interesting, see the "atonal" section in the slow movement)
D894 (Einstein and Schumann thought it was his best, so did Richter)
D664 (Pure poetic beauty from beginning to the sparkling end)
D784 (Arguably his darkest and most desperate, with a dashing last movement)
D958 (as superb as music can get, even though the last movement is a pianistic nightmare)
D845 (similar to 784 but with a exquisite variations slow movement in major mode that any other composer could only have dreamt to write)
D850 (not my preferred, but if you want to show off pianistically, that's the one)
D575 (a completely underplayed gem)

What to choose among all these wonders??
If you want a short wonder, then it's D784
If you want a long one, I'd pick D959

Btw: They are almost all technically tricky without sounding very difficult, which is a certain problem with Schubert sonatas and a reason they are played less than Beethoven. For example the legendary Moritz Rosenthal did not perform Schubert sonatas, lamenting about the "extreme difficulty"* of the last mvt of D894. Having played it myself, I can certainly see what he meant.

*Charles Rosen (2002), Piano Notes, p. 177. Penguin Books.
"It's true that I've driven through a number of red lights on occasion, but on the other hand I've stopped at a lot of green ones but never gotten credit for it." -- Glenn Gould

Offline aslanov

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Re: Suggest a Schubert Sonata
Reply #3 on: May 19, 2009, 07:34:02 PM
thanks guys.

Offline sharon_f

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Re: Suggest a Schubert Sonata
Reply #4 on: May 20, 2009, 03:05:51 AM
I just finished D. 566 in E minor. It is a very early, small two movement gem. There is a questionable 3rd and 4th movement that were written and published later.  Kempff and Klein play just the original two movements, Moderato and Allegretto. Richter adds the 3rd movement, Scherzo, between the two. I don't know of anyone who plays the spurious 4th movement. Not many pianists have performed it and my teacher never heard of it until I brought it into my lesson one day.
There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats.
Albert Schweitzer

Offline aslanov

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Re: Suggest a Schubert Sonata
Reply #5 on: May 20, 2009, 04:25:11 AM
Do you have the score to the 566? i just checked IMSLP and all it has is a 4 page, seemingly one movement score.
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