B-Flat Piano Sonata

Franz Schubert

Clifford Curzon

Beautiful Music, Haunted by Death

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) wrote this piece, his piano masterwork, in the last year of his life. He was dying of syphilis and mostly a recluse, but he spent his days churning out one great piece after another. Scholars believe this and two other piano sonatas were completed in September 1828; all exhibit a fierce individuality not evident in his previous piano music. Around the same time, Schubert embarked on his unfinished final symphony, and it too is a leap, containing harmonic ideas that hint at directions taken by Mahler years later.

Something was clearly going on with Schubert, who despite some acclaim for his compositions was often broke and dependent on family and friends. His late pieces share a stories-to-tell-before-I-sleep urgency, and a willingness to subvert long-entrenched compositional rules. They're also deeply moving: The B-Flat Sonata contains stunning elegiac melodies, themes that are beautiful in isolation and become more profound as they spread out and melt into each other. This is particularly true of the opening movement, which begins in murmuring quiet and dwells in a place of futility and resignation. The shadow of death hangs over each note, and Schubert sketches it perfectly, implying regret (or, at times, dread) without adding extra pathos. He shakes off the death-watch during the final movement, and just when things seem to brighten, the piece ends with a brief skirmish followed by a dramatic minor-key lunge into the abyss.

In chronology and temperament, Schubert is on the cusp between classicism and romanticism. He's attentive to form the way his classical predecessors were, yet he has the romantic's tendency toward rash expressions—his melodies are so loaded with ache you follow them just to see if he can sustain the mood. The often overlooked British pianist Clifford Curzon (1907–1982) accentuates Schubert's erastraddling duality. His tone is inviting and warm, but he maintains, through much of the piece, a teacher's inclination to emphasize structure over runaway feeling. There are plenty of lavish and dramatic versions of the B-Flat Sonata; Curzon's less-showy approach provides a clear view of what Schubert intended, and as a result, is a great way to encounter this magnificent music for the first time.

Genre: Classical
Released: 1971, Decca
Key Tracks: first movement
Another Interpretation: Evgeny Kissin
Catalog Choice: Impromptus for Piano, Murray Perahia
Next Stop: Johannes Brahms: Fantasia Op. 116, Eugen Jochum
After That: Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto, Maurizio Pollini
Book Page: 680