Piano Sonatas D958 & D960

Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 19 & 21, d. 958, 960 Franz Schubert (Composer), Elisabeth Leonskaja (Performer) Franz Schubert was born in Vienna in 1797, the son of a school-master, whose path it seemed he might follow as an assistant teacher. He enjoyed a sound musical training as a cathedral chorister and when his voice broke in 1812 rejected the offered scholarship and further general education in favor of a career that allowed him more time for music. The death of Beethoven in 1827 seems to have suggested to Schubert the possibility that he might become his musical successor. The Sonata in C minor, D. 958, opens with a heroic figure that Beethoven might have used. There is a gentler second subject in the expected key of E flat major, and a central development that starts dramatically enough, before moving into a much gentler mood which nevertheless explores the wider range of the contemporary piano. The A fiat major Adagio is daring in it's harmonic imagination, a sign of things to come. It is followed by a C minor Minuet with an A fiat major Trio. The final rondo has the vigor and energy of a tarantella, it's headlong rhythm interrupted by contrasting episodes.