The Piano Sonata in F minor 625 is a
piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with t ...
written in September 1818 by
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
. The
Adagio D. 505 is assumed to be its slow movement.
Movements
I. Allegro
F minor. Fragment (ends after the development on the dominant of B-flat minor)
The entire movement revolves around the rhythm of the first bars, and there is an extensive use of trills, an element which forms part of the initial motive. The second subject could be described as being "a consolatory version of the first."
As is the case with other Schubert sonatas, the composer left the movement unfinished, breaking off at the beginning of the recapitulation after a substantial development section that modulates extensively. The movement has been completed by
Paul Badura-Skoda
Paul Badura-Skoda (6 October 1927 – 25 September 2019) was an Austrian pianist.
Career
A student of Edwin Fischer, Badura-Skoda first rose to prominence by winning first prize in the Austrian Music Competition in 1947. In 1949, he perform ...
, who recorded the sonata using his completed version, which was also used by
Hanae Nakajima in her complete recording of the sonatas.
Martino Tirimo
Martino Tirimo (born 19 December 1942) is a Cypriot classical pianist.
Born into a musical family in Larnaca, he began piano and violin lessons with his father, a distinguished conductor and violinist. He gave his first concert at the age of six, ...
has likewise completed this movement in his edition of the complete piano sonatas, and recorded it. Some pianists, however, such as
András Schiff
Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Musi ...
, have recorded the movement as Schubert left it, simply stopping where the manuscript ends.
II. Adagio, ''D. 505''
D-flat major
The adagio D. 505 is listed as the second movement of the sonata in a catalog of Schubert compositions (with
incipits
The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it beg ...
) put together by his brother.
III. Scherzo: Allegretto - Trio
E major
Misha Donat describes the movement as one "whose very distant key and full-blooded sonority following the much leaner texture of the first movement comes as a severe shock."
IV. Allegro
F minor. Fragment (The left hand is missing from measure 201 to measure 270). Ends in F major.
The choice of key and the turbulent writing, unusual for Schubert, indicate an affinity and influence from Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata, Op. 57. While Schubert left only a completed sketch of this movement, the soprano line allows the harmony to be easily reconstructed.
Notes
References
* Tirimo, Martino. ''Schubert: The Complete Piano Sonatas.'' Vienna: Wiener Urtext Edition, 1997.
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Piano sonatas by Franz Schubert
1818 compositions
Compositions in F minor