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one argument goes against this theory: and that
is the state of manuscript, a working score with
many corrections. That is why i rather believe that
it was the Sonata in E flat major (D 568)
which had been envisaged for publication as number
iii. Who else but a publisher who was thinking
that a sonata with a key signature of three flats
would sell more easily than one with five flats,
could have persuaded Schubert to transpose the
Sonata D 567 originally written in D flat major?
The corrections introduced to the version in E flat
major when compared to the original version also
suggest a revision made by the composer himself
a few years later. Finally this Sonata was published
as opus 122 relatively soon after Schubert’s death,
probably without his brother enjoying the rights
that he should have inherited.
∆
The three last sonatas
We cannot help noticing certain analogies between
the development of the last three symphonies
of Mozart (composed in 1788) and that of the
last three sonatas for piano of Schubert (dating
from September 1828). Written without any apparent
external reason, and within an extremely short
space of time, these two triptyches both represent
in their particular genres, the apotheosis of their
art. They each include one work in a minor key and
two in a major key, brought together by an implicit
cyclical relationship. Naturally there are differences
between them: the end of the Jupiter radiates with
Apollonian joy, while the last Sonata is filled with
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serenity and nostalgia, as if Schubert felt a foreboding
that he only had a few weeks to life.
in his critical study of the last three Sonatas,
Schumann, despite his usual intuitive clairvoyance,
committed a grave error of judgment, which
has since been repeated without justification. He
felt a certain diminution in Schubert’s creative faculties
due to illness. But there can be no question
here of a weakening in his power of composition,
rather a deliberate departure into unexplored territory,
scaring to peaks where icy winds blow. This
new expressive domain serves to explain, here and
there, a certain savage ruggedness and the evocation
of an icy landscape, a hundred miles away in
fact from the flowery orchards of his youth.
∆
Sonata no. 18 in C minor, D 958
“it is by my instinct for music and my suffering
that my works exist: those works born of my suffering
alone seem to bring less joy to the world”
(extract from Schubert’s Dairy of 1824 which has
since disappeared).
“Engraved by suffering and instinct”. Few of
the works mentioned like this in Schubert’s Diary
justify the description as much as the Sonata in
C minor. And as Schubert so rightly said, tragic
works of this nature enjoy at first encounter less
success than more serene works. Still today in the
eyes of most people Schubert is first and foremost
the creator of pleasant melodies. However the
“tragic” Schubert, to whom we are indebted for
the most profound and beautiful musical expression,
is all the same now gradually beginning to