Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 5, 7a, 11 And 12

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Cat No: 8557189

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Release Date: 03 January 2004

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313218929

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SCHUBERT

Description
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)Piano Sonatas (Fragments)Tragedy and failure is suggested by the idea of 'fragment'in music and particularly in the case of Schubert. In addition to popularworks, such as the Symphony in B minor, D.759, Unfinished, the uncompletedstage oratorio Lazarus, D.689, or the String Quartet in C minor, D.703, thereare a large number of fragmentary piano sonatas. Most of these, of which fourare here included, come from the period between 1817 and 1823, Schubert'sso-called years of crisis. Much of what Schubert tackled at this time may bereckoned among his most daring and strange works and remained fragmentary,serving, as it were, as experiments in composition. Schubert wanted to preparethe way, through the intermediate stages of string quartet and piano sonatas,for the grand symphony. These sonata fragments, therefore, take on a particularvalue in Schubert's creative life, not least because of their relatively highnumber, with twelve unfinished sonatas against eleven completed now surviving.They document the composer's struggle over the formal pattern of an alreadystrongly traditional form, the sonata. Often models, Haydn, Mozart, Hummel,Carl Maria von Weber and above all Beethoven, are clearly perceptible in theseworks, yet at the same time Schubert's personal style is already stronglymarked. The use of keys with a higher number of sharps or flats (D flat major,D.567; B major, D.575; A flat major, D.557), which indicate a stronglyemotional expressive content, is an essential characteristic of the sonatasfrom this period. Generally two types of fragment may be distinguished,fragments of sonata expositions on the one hand, which break off in thedevelopment or, at the latest, with the start of the recapitulation, and on theother hand cycle fragments where independent movements were not completed. Thepiano sonata fragments allow a profound examination of Schubert's innercompositional procedures, yet do not answer the ever present question as to whySchubert broke off at this or that point in the work and did not take it up again.Is it the feeling that the thematic material is pushed to its limits or thatthe demands of the form could not be correctly met, or is it simply the innerpressure to change to a new, supposedly more exciting or more rewarding task? Adefinitive answer is not always possible through thorough analysis. In the end,therefore, the music itself must speak, music that in these cases always bringswith it a touch of the puzzle and mystery.Leading pianists and Schubert scholars have attempted tocomplete the surviving fragments. For the present recording, however, it wasdecided to remain true exclusively to Schubert's original text and to workwithout the completions of others, thus to underline also the fragmentaryimpression of these pieces. In two places, however, movements are completedthrough analogy with parallel passages. In the Sonata in D flat major, D.567,for the last missing page of the finale it was possible to d
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