Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major

Schubert’s last three piano sonatas (Nos. 19-21) occupied him on and off between the spring and fall of 1828. Having been one of the torchbearers at Beethoven’s funeral the previous year, the 31-year-old composer was all too aware his own time was running out. Plagued by syphilitic fits of giddiness, he moved to his brother’s apartments on the outskirts of Vienna in the desperate hope that some country air might improve his health. It was here that during September he put the finishing touches to the sonatas, alongside his glorious String Quintet and some final song settings that were published posthumously as Schwanengesang (“Swansong”). The Piano Sonata No. 20 D. 959 is an uncompromising work whose unvarnished honesty rarely lies particularly comfortably under the fingers. At around 40 minutes, it was then one of the longest sonatas ever written, so Schubert enhances the sense of the movements belonging together by means of a cyclic (recurring) thematic motif. This motif is first heard as the imposing series of chords that open the majestic "Allegro" first movement. Listen out for the end of the following "Andantino", where the chord sequence remerges, exquisitely transformed. Remarkably, that same harmonic outline gives rise to the dancing third movement, "Scherzo", and the "Rondo" finale’s main theme as well as the final coda, bringing the entire sonata full circle.