KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 505, 25 February 1949, Page 12

KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

"THIS is one of a further series of articles written for "The Listener"

by

BESSIE

POLLARD

As with the preceding series, published

some time ago, the aim is to help the student and the interested listener towards a more complete appreciation of good music, (10) Piano Sonata in B Flat, Op. Post. ( Schubert ) SCHUBERT'S Sonata in B Flat was the last of the three piano sonatas written in September, 1828, six weeks before his untimely death at the-age of 31, and published posthumously. This "farewell to the piano" shows Schubert’s genius at its peak. When one considers that his period of creative’ writing covered scarcely twenty years, and yet, for the piano alone, he left us a wealth of works so glorious that a lifetime of study and performance of them augments rather than dims their inspiration, one wonders sometimes what his next Sonata would have been like had he lived, and then again on what lines would his style of piano writing have progressed. Each of the four movements of the B Flat Sonata had its individual charmin the first, molto moderato, I like the calm peacefulness of the very opening theme, which ends enigmatically with a long low trill-

Other lovely passages are-in bar 48, the entry of the subsidiary theme in the remote key of F sharp minor, and later the extended approach, with its rainbowlike chromatic harmonies, to the re-statement section. The second movementAndante sostenuto-is poetic and restrained. The opening theme ("A" below) has an interesting accompaniment figure in which the left hand weaves over and under the right. The middle section theme ("B" below) reminds us again of the Schubert of the. lieder.

| The Scherzo-allegro vivace con delicatezza-is delightful; although in the key of B flat, it passes through the most daring keys in the most natural manner | in the world. It begins-

The Trio section is short, but its accentuation, and inner melodies give it character and an engaging interest- !

epee The Finale-allegro ma non troppo-has been said to resemble the last movement of the B Flat Trio, Op. 99. It begins with an octave "call-sign," as it were, and then proceeds into the main theme ("A" below), In bar 85, a rather wistful sub-theme enters ("B" below)-

Schubert's Sonata in B Flat, Op. Post.-the last of a series, "Schubert's Sonatas," presented by Dorothy Davies, will be heard from Station 2YA, at 7.30 pan, on Thursday. March 3.