Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Sonata in C Minor, D. 958
Sonata in B Flat Major, D. 960
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 favour of a career that allowed
him more time for music. In 1814 he embarked on a course as a primary school teacher and
the following year joined his father, although he showed no great aptitude for his new
profession, which he was to practise intermittently, as need arose, for a year or so. The
greater part of the remaining years of his life were devoted to music and to the company
of his friends. By the time of his death in 1828 some of his music had been published and
there was increasing interest in his compositions. Nevertheless he never held any official
position in the musical establishment in Vienna and much of what he wrote was intended for
the entertainment of his own circle, which included bath professional and amateur
musicians, poets and painters.
The death of Beethoven in 1827 seems to have suggested to
Schubert the possibility that he might become his musical successor. This ambition,
whether overt or not, found some immediate expression in the three piano sonatas of 1828,
completed in September, some six weeks before his own death. Schubert proposed a
dedication to Hummel, a pupil of Mozart, leading pianist and successful composer, whom he
had met in 1827. When the sonatas were finally published, posthumously, the dedication by
the publisher was to Robert Schumann, who did much to bring the music of Schubert to
public notice in the second quarter of the 19th century. Schubert played all three sonatas
on 27th September at a party at the house of Dr. Ignaz Menz.
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
its 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 vigour and energy of a tarantella, its
headlong rhythm interrupted by contrasting episodes.
The last of the 1828 sonatas, the Sonata in B flat major, D. 960, opens in a manner
characteristic of many of Schubert's songs and its gentle first theme dominates the
extended movement. The slow movement, moving from C sharp minor to A major and to a final
C sharp major has about it a beautiful serenity and is followed by a delicately graceful
scherzo in B fiat major, framing a solemn Trio in the tonic minor key. The final rondo
starts in harmonic ambiguity, suggesting the influence of Beethoven's substituted final
movement for his Opus 130 String Quartet, and exemplifying the quality of heavenly length
so often cited by writers on Schubert.
Jeno Jandó
Jeno Jandó was born at Pécs, in south Hungary, in 1952. He
started to learn the piano when he was seven and later studied at the Ferenc Liszt Academy
of Music under Katalin Nemes and Pál Kadosa, becoming assistant to the latter on his
graduation in 1974. Jandó has won a number of piano competitions in Hungary and abroad,
including first prize in the 1973 Hungarian Piano Concours and a first prize in the
chamber music category at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1977. In addition
to his many appearances in Hungary, he has played widely abroad in Eastern and Western
Europe, in Canada and in Japan. He has recorded all Mozart's piano concertos and sonatas
for Naxos. Other recordings for the Naxos label include the concertos of Grieg and
Schumann as well as Rachmaninov's Second concerto
and Paganini Rhapsody and the complete piano
sonatas of Beethoven.