Télécharger le livret - Outhere

the age of 50 or 52, at the height of his creativity:
Schubert’s last Sonatas are not eclipsed by
Beethoven’s, even if we can hardly expect of them
an equal subtlety nor that sovereign manner of
playing around with form: for their musical substance
is so profound that we can only, here again,
be silent, filled with veneration before perfect the
accomplishment. Schubert speaks directly to
the heart: the great grief of the slow movements
in the last Sonatas only finds its equivalent in
Beethoven’s String Quartet opus 131, but the serene
happiness of the final farewell is the same
with both these great composers: “Muß es sein?
Es muß sein!” [Must it be? it must be!].
The difficulty of interpreting Schubert well
has been much discussed. His Sonatas require a
“flexible” touch, always lyrical but often orchestral,
which a pianist who is only a virtuoso will not
succeed in finding, since each piece of Schubert’s
requires an approach with great love and a natural
attitude, without affectations, vis-à-vis music
and life. (in his writing Alfred Brendel has said
some excellent things on the subject of interpreting
Schubert.) The aim is achieved when the effect
which we produce upon our listeners is similar to
that which Schubert produced on his.
Ferdinand Hiller wrote: “When i left for Vienna
– where i was going to meet Beethoven and to
speak with him a few weeks before his death –
along with my teacher (Hummel) during the
winter of 1827, we had still not heard anything
about Schubert. A lady friend of Hummel’s from
his younger days, the former singer Buchweiser,
who was then married to a wealthy Hungarian
14
magnate, was mad about him, or rather about his
songs, and it was at their house that he was presented
to the famous Kapellmeister. We had several
meals there in the company of that quiet young
man and his favourite singer, the tenor, Vogl. The
latter, already quite old but full of fire and life, had
practically no voice left – while Schubert, despite
his honourable competence, was far from being a
master of the keyboard. And yet, never have i since
heard Schubert’s songs as i did then! Vogl knew
how to make us forget his lack of voice through
the most ardent and most appropriate expression,
while Schubert accompanied – as one should accompany.
The pieces followed one another – we
were insatiable – the performers indefatigable. i
still have before my eyes the vision of my fat old
master sitting in a comfortable armchair behind
the piano – he spoke little, but the tears flowed
down his cheeks. As for my own feelings i cannot
describe them. it was an illumination”. 3
∆
Sonata no. 1 in E major, D 157
February 1815
First edition 1888
Old edition complete
When he began work on his first piano sonata
Schubert was eighteen years old; this was relatively
late for a composer who had written more
than 150 works, including some immortal masterpieces,
and who in his Lieder had already created
a very personal pianistic style, fluid and subtle in
3 Ferdinand Hiller: “Erinnerung an Schubert” in O.E. Deutsch, Franz
Schubert. Die Erinner.