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“call for” an orchestra (or at least a version for four
hands or two pianos); and yet it is so eminently
pianistic that it is better left without any such arrangement.
in this quite unconventional way of
writing for the piano, already foreshadowed by the
Sonata in A minor of 1823, Schubert had no
spiritual successor before Mussorgsky. The latter
had of course been preceded by Franz Liszt, but
he was much too good a pianist to demand the
impossible from his instrument. Curiously it is
this kind of work which requires the most of the
imagination of both pianist and listener. Even the
genial orchestration that Ravel provided for the
Pictures at an exhibition, which seems to realize
everything that the piano could only suggest, is
not as effective as the original: perhaps it is this
apparent imperfection of the piano which gives
it the ability to evoke sound and situations in the
imagination of the player or listener: no reality,
however beautiful and accessible, can replace the
paradise of the dream.
Also “orchestral” in its breadth and power,
but more “realistic” in its writing for the piano,
the Sonata in A minor D 845 was no doubt
composed shortly afterwards. it is possible that
Schubert did not finish the Sonata in C major
D 840, although it must have already been well
advanced, because he quite simply preferred
to devote his attention to the one in A minor
which shares some common features with it; this
Sonata in A minor also pushes the possibilities
of the piano to its limits, without ever quite
stepping over them. Moreover, Schubert may have
been confused by the relationship between the
40
main themes of the two Sonatas on a rhythmic
and technical level, and by the fact that in each sonata
they dominate a development which in both
cases leads imperceptibly into the recapitulation.
Mozart, on the other hand, never had the slightest
scruples about beginning different works with the
same motif, as we see with the four piano concertos
in succession K 451, 453, 456 and 459.
But in fact, what a difference there is in atmosphere
between the themes of these two Sonatas!
Here (in D 840), it is a sombre one of tragic foreboding.
The few superficial similarities and the
more pianistic style of the Sonata in A minor
do not suffice to explain why the Sonata in C
major should have been left unfinished. For not
only the first movement but also the second, with
its infinite sadness, have a profundity and perfection
in the power of realisation that seem to represent
a high point in Schubert’s work.
Another comparison may be made with a work
composed two years earlier: the Unfinished, in fact
“the most finished” Symphony, which deserves the
same reverence as the great Symphony in C Major.
its title derives from the fact that, instead of the
usual four movements, it has only two. We know
that Schubert attempted to write a third movement,
a Scherzo in B major, but that he very quickly
recognised himself that it “did not really work”. He
left the Scherzo unfinished, tearing out the second
page (which has only been found again in recent
time; he must have left the first page because it was
on the back of the last page of the Andante), and
sent the preceding movements, whose score was
complete, to Graz, as an expression of gratitude