With
this, the companion piece for our popular Integral Edition Series post,
we continue and conclude our survey of Franz Schubert's piano
sonatas. This post concerns all the largely unfinished or
posthumously published works, none of which appear in the Integral
Edition Series. Schubert wrote a lot of unfinished works that were
fortunately not burned, as was often the fate of lesser or unfinished
works by others. It's difficult to properly number these works,
though one can always rely on the Deutsch numbers. We'll continue
numbering them after the first set, which ended with Sonata #15 being
the B Flat Major D. 960, which Schubert completed in September, 1828,
just weeks before his death. You'll find in this set all those works
that you've perhaps heard before, yet they were missing from the
first set.
Considered
a fragment, this piece became a five movement work, the missing
movements apparently found later and the first publication occurred
in 1843. It is available, complete and beautifully laid out, in the
third volume of Henle's urtext series edited by Paul Badura-Skoda.
This E Major Sonata would be contemporaneous with the 1817 sonatas,
so it makes many allusions to Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. But this
is the fourth voice of the Viennese classical style, the voice of the
singer. One finds all kinds of textures and moods in Schubert.
Think Mozart when you're playing these, because if you over play any
of it, much of the music's uniqueness will be ruined. Just because
there are a lot of chords doesn't mean that we want to understand by
this the instruction to bang a lot on the piano. Nothing like that
is ever intended. This music is a distillation of the styles of the
other classical masters and even those who came long before them.
Subtlety abounds. I chose Wilhelm Kempff's performance, as it
superbly exemplifies all these characteristics.
1.
Allegro moderato
2.
Scherzo: Allegro
3.
Adagio
4.
Scherzo: Allegro - Trio: Più tardo
5.
Allegro patetico
Sonata
#17 in f sharp minor (1817) D. 571, D. 604, D 570
This
sonata is concocted of fragments, the first and last movements happen
to lack recapitulations, which have been supplied by various editors.
It's apparently not that hard to complete Schubert sonata-allegro
forms, since in his finished works, he rarely deviates from his
method, so that's what's frequently done. Some pianists, actually
stop playing after the verifiable music actually penned by Schubert
runs out. Richter and Brendel did this. It can be done as
acceptable performance practise, but I've always thought it somewhat
odd; if you're going to play a fragment, might as well make the best
of finishing it if you can. Besides which, and perhaps this was even
more true in earlier more romanticized periods, when one hears the
music suddenly stop and knows its because the composer didn't get
around to finishing it, one can then afford oneself the lament that
only if the poor fellow had managed to live longer, that he'd have
finished it himself. Believe me, as it is, plenty goes unfinished.
One always hopes to accomplish what one can.
Victor
Stanislavsky plays the first movement, including a recapitulation
that is similar to that found in the Badura-Skoda Henle edition. The
Andante is complete and is played here very well by an unidentified
pianist. I don't usually like including unauthenticated
performances, but we're dealing with the rare and difficult here. We
want to give our readers an idea of the composition, so that perhaps
they might make something of it themselves.
For
the third movement, I chose a period instrument rendition by
Trudelies Leonhardt. It gives you the sense of the times in which
Schubert worked, with the instruments he had available, a transition
period where you can really see how he was dealing with how to mould
and shape the old dance forms with new harmonies and textures. The
fourth movement is played by Alwin Bär who has the recording fade
out as the development section nears its end. This piece is
completed in the Henle edition, so I suppose you'd have to get a copy
to find out how it ends.
1.
Allegro moderato [D 571]
2.
Andante [D. 604]
3.
Scherzo [D 570]
4.
Allegro [D 570]
Sonata
#18 in C Major (1818) D. 613, D. 612
This
sonata is also a concoction of fragments. The first movement is
again offered here played quite competently by an unauthenticated
pianist. It lacks a recapitulation, and one is supplied here. The
one in the Henle edition will be somewhat different only near the end
where Badura-Skoda provides a more conservative rendering. The
second movement, a flowery period Adagio, is complete and here played
by Peter Frankl. I regret not finding a recording of the last
movement. That also can be found in the Henle edition, its
recapitulation completed by Paul Badura-Skoda.
1.
Moderato [D. 613]
2.
Adagio [D. 612]
3.
Allegretto [D3 613 said to be a Siciliana]
Sonata #19 in f
minor (1818) D. 625
This
is one of the more outstanding sonatas among the unfinished ones and
one of the most recognizable. Richter played it, at least the parts
actually written by Schubert. Paul Badura-Skoda played the version
of it he completed in the Henle edition and his version is presented
here. The middle movements are sometimes switched. Either way, the
punchy scherzo theme offers a kind of shock to whatever preceded it.
The Scherzo is complete, as is the Adagio. The fourth movement is
missing the left hand part after a while, so Badura-Skoda completed
it.
1.
Allegro
2.
Scherzo: Allegretto – Trio
3.
Adagio [D. 505]
4.
Allegro
This
is another amazing discovery, the latest to be found unfinished
work in this genre by Schubert. It was given the name “relique”
in the belief that it was his last written piano sonata, but it was
in fact written three years earlier in 1825, and left to gather dust
somewhere until it was discovered, put together and first published
as a fragment in 1881, the same year Brahms' second piano concerto was
premièred and Béla Bartók was born. It's first two movements were
complete, and that's how much of it most people ever get to hear.
But there were enough of the last two movements to nearly complete
them. We are pleased to have Sviatoslav Richter's nearly complete
performance of this recreated work. He quits playing when the last
of the real Schubert ends and where editors like Badura-Skoda have
completed the work.
1.
Moderato
2.
Andante
3.
Menuetto
4.
Rondo
And
believe it or not, there's actually one more; a completed version of
Sonata #7 in E Flat Major D. 568 except it's in D Flat Major, D. 567,
and there are some other changes to some of the music in the middle
movements and so on. It's considered an earlier version of the more
popular E Flat sonata (our #7). I wasn't able to find any recordings
of it and as far as I know, no one ever plays it. It's included in
the third volume of the Henle Badura-Skoda edition, should you wish
to become the first to claim it as your own.
Thank-you
once again for coming along with us to investigate the unfinished
works of Franz Schubert. We're lucky to have them. We'd be even
more lucky to hear newer and better performances and recordings of
all of them.
FINIS
