Secondarily, Schubert is more classified as a Romantic composer rather than a Classical/Baroque composer for a reason. Not only are his melodies and harmonies romantic (textbook definition) in nature, but what distinguishes Schubert from all other composers of his era were his unique rhythms. I play his along with Chopin's pieces as written - lots of polyrhythm. Thanks for creating this forum!
Can't really help with the variations, but in the C minor Impromptu I play the dotted eighth/sixteenth against the triplet accompaniment as written, as a poly rhythm. Fitting the previously established march theme to the triplet accompaniment makes it lose its character. So in this case, anyway, I'm for playing as written.
And lets add a couple pieces to the list to compare.... the last movements of D. 960 and D.958.In the last movement of 960 he uses the polyrhythm extensively with the right hand playing dotted 16ths over left hand triplets. In the last movement of 958 he consistently uses triplets in BOTH hands throughout the entire piece. He wrote these two pieces at the same time, during the final months of his life. why would he take the effort to notate these two pieces which have similar textures differently? listen to 10 recordings of each and you will see how they are traditionally played.... AS WRITTEN!. Schubert adored polyrhythms, if you browse through his music, they are everywhere.
Interesting this one. I don't know the piece in question, but my experience as a performer of Schubert's songs leads me to the conclusion that each case should be taken separately. So, for instance, the polyrhythms in "Frühlingsglaube" should be respected, but not necessarily in "Wasserflut" (Winterreise). Currently studying "Normans Gesang", one of the Scott songs, and I have to admit to being very confused, such is the plethora of different notatations, often without logic( to modern performers, at least). In the case of the songs, a good rule-of-thumb would seem to be to respect the underlying poetic content of the song, and one can also apply that to solo piano pieces (or duets, thinking of the dotted adagio section of the (Fantasy in f) - in other words if one adopts the approach that Schubert's piano pieces are songs without words. Best wishes, Conor Biggswww.artsong.eu