The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert Javier ... - Ethesis

1824-1828
date) and the Variations in A-flat major (D813), both of which show a similar mastery
and self-confidence as found in the string quartets and other chamber works from the
beginning of the year. After returning to Vienna in September, the rest of the year was
not especially productive, although it did see the birth of two works that enjoy a
frequent place in concert programmes and recordings: the Sonata for Arpeggione and
Piano in A minor (D821) and (possibly) the second Suleika song (D717).
The beginning of 1825 seems to have been a continuation of the autumn in
terms of Schubert’s productivity and state of health. The lack of new compositions and
the shortage of surviving documentation lead us to believe that Schubert was again
feeling unwell. His first biographer, Heinrich Kreißle von Hellborn, even claims that in
January 1825 Schubert was forced to spend some time in hospital. 5 Despite the
circumstances, the beginning of the year saw the birth of the two extraordinary songs
that Schubert wrote on poems by the schoolmaster Karl Lappe (1773-1843): the famous
Im Abendrot (Sunset Glow, D799), a masterpiece of Romantic aesthetics and of that
perfect unity between man and nature upheld by the Romantics; and Der Einsame (The
Recluse, D800), an exquisite jewel which shows the extraordinary command of the
modified strophic song that Schubert had achieved by this time.
February seems to be the beginning of a long and happy time in Schubert’s life.
For many consecutive months, Schubert felt better, even perhaps to the extent of
thinking that he was cured. Des Sängers Habe (The Minstrel’s Treasure, D832, on
verses by his school friend Franz von Schlechta) is one of the few songs from February.
It displays a renewed strength, the fight against adversity expressed through an
amalgam of moods: ‘exhilaration, defiance, despair and reconciliation:’ 6
Schlagt mein ganzes Glück in Splitter,
Nehmt mir alle Habe gleich,
Lasset mir nur meine Zither,
Und ich bleibe froh und reich. 7
Break my happiness in pieces,
take from me all I possess;
leave me only my zither,
and I shall remain glad and rich.
Around this time, Schubert changed residence again, this time next door to his
friend Moritz von Schwind. 8 And not far from there – in the house where Gluck had
died – lived the painter Wilhelm August Rieder (1796-1880), an acquaintance of
Schubert who owned a fine piano (Schubert never had a piano of his own) constructed
by the famous Viennese maker Anton Walter (1752-1826). Apparently he let Schubert
use it whenever he was not himself at home, 9 which is fascinating because in those
spring months, Schubert again focused on the composition of piano sonatas. Very likely
taking advantage of these new circumstances, Schubert changed his ‘genre of
symphonic studies’ from the string quartet to the sonata for piano. During the spring of
1825 he would work on two large piano sonatas: in C major (D840) and in A minor
(D845). With the single exception of the Sonata in A minor from 1823, it had taken him
more than five years to return successfully to the genre. In general, we can see some
83