St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Christian Blackshaw performs Schubert’s piano sonatas


Christian Blackshaw (biography)


PROGRAMME:
Franz Schubert
The final Piano Sonatas (No 19 in C Minor, D 958, No 20 in A Major, D 959 and No 21 in B Flat Major, D 960)


Franz Schubert composed his three final piano sonatas in September 1828, the third of them completed on 26 September – less than two months before the composer’s death. Ten years would pass before these sonatas were published. We may think of this trilogy as Schubert’s testament (in October only a few religious choruses and songs appeared).
The Sonata in C Minor (D. 958) reminds us of Beethoven with more than just its tonality. The principal theme of the first movement closely resembles the theme of Beethoven’s 32 Variations, and there are many references to the great classic in the other movements too. This should come as no surprise as Beethoven’s music was very important in Schubert’s life, particularly in later years. He had attended the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. At Beethoven’s funeral Schubert was among the musicians who bore torches, along with the pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, to whom Schubert later intended to dedicate these three last sonatas. Ultimately, Schubert’s own concert took place in 1828 on the day of Beethoven’s death – almost as if the heir apparent was taking the baton from the hands of the late classic. Alas, it was not to be for long.
The Sonata in A Major (D. 959) opens with a triumphant chorale, and throughout the first movement the chorale structure always returns. The second movement, slow and focussed, amazes with its sense of detachment, though it is surprising that it is followed by such a lively, light and inventive scherzo. The final rondo is written in a lento tempo, nonconventional for finales. This warm and sincere finale almost literally follows the wish Beethoven left on the first page of his Missa solemnis: “From the heart – may it return to the heart!”
The Sonata in B Flat Major (D. 960) was to be one of the works through which Franz Schubert said farewell to life and music. Robert Schumann’s famous words about Schubert’s “divine lengths” may indeed be used in reference to the Sonata in B Flat Major. The unusual and unhuman scale of the tremendous four-movement composition is related not so much by the number of bars as the different measure of time. Schubert was literally on the edge of infinity and at times looked beyond the confines of our world.
Human passions are to be found only in the finale – a rebellious tarantella. The first movement opens with a triumphantly peaceful chorale. A different chorale can be heard in the middle of the second movement. The third movement – in the sonata tradition – is a scherzo, but it is surprisingly weightless and ephemeral. In this final sonata Schubert created melodies with amazing generosity. If the melody is the soul of the music then the Sonata in B Flat Major there is not one single lifeless bar. It is generally considered that the “endless melody” was created by Wagner, but Schubert did it much earlier.
Anna Bulycheva

Age category 6+

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