Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Schubert)

For other compositions (nick)named Grand Duo see Grand Duo

The Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Op. posth. 140) by Franz Schubert, also known as Grand Duo, is one of Schubert's most important works for two pianists.

History

Schubert wrote this work in the spring of 1824 while at Zseliz on the Esterházy estate, probably for the two countesses he was tutoring at the time.

At the time this work was written Schubert was too ill to play piano. He complained of pain in his bones and his left arm, headaches, and lesions in his mouth and throat. In a letter to his brother Ferdinand he described his illness as "a period of fateful recognition of a miserable reality, which I endeavour to beautify as far as possible by my imagination."^[1]

The sonata was published after Schubert's death, in 1837, when it was printed with the title 'Grand Duo' – by which it is still popularly known, though there is no evidence that this was Schubert's title.

Structure and Analysis

There are four movements:

Allegro moderato
Andante
Scherzo and Trio (Allegro vivace)
Finale (Allegro vivace)

This is a mature and characteristic work by Schubert on the largest scale. The structures of the movements closely resemble those of a symphony and some passages appear to reproduce orchestral effects (though both these observations might apply to some of Schubert's solo piano sonatas). Thus in addition to its intrinsic qualities and interest the Grand Duo was soon believed by some authorities, including Robert Schumann, to be a transcription or draft of the missing so-called Gastein Symphony that Schubert was thought to have written in 1824. (It is only since the 1970s that it has been proved conclusively that there was no such work.) As a result, there have been a number of orchestral realizations of the Sonata as a symphony. The best known is by Joseph Joachim^[2]^[3] (1855^[3]^[4]), which was conducted by Brahms several times in the 1870s^[5] and later recorded by Arturo Toscanini. Other completions are by Anthony Collins (1939),^[2]^[6] Marius Flothuis (1940–42), Karl Salomon (1946),^[6] Fritz Oeser (1948), René Leibowitz (c.1965),^[7] Felix Weingartner,^[7] and most recently Raymond Leppard.^[7] Joachim altered the tempo of the finale to Allegro moderato.

The finale, like that of the B-flat sonata for solo piano (D. 960) from the composer's last year, opens deceptively in the wrong key, in this case, the relative minor, A minor (in the later solo sonata, after a unison G, the melody opens in the supertonic, C minor). In both cases, however, the harmonic deception is almost immediately 'corrected' by shifting to the main key.

A typical performance takes about 40 minutes.

References

Footnotes

↑ Hayden, Deborah. "Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis", Basic Books, NY, 2004
1 2 (Shore 1950, p. 77)
1 2 (Horowitz 2000)
↑ (Brown 1988, p. 8)
↑ (Anderson 1994, p. 5)
1 2 (Brown 1958, p. 187)
1 2 3 (Gibbs 1994)

Bibliography

Anderson, Keith (1994). "Liner notes to Naxos CD 8.553095". Retrieved 8 August 2016.
Brown, Maurice J. E. (1958). Schubert: A Critical Biography (PDF). McMillian & Cº.
Brown, Clive, Dr (1988). Liner Notes to recording of Schuberts Symphony Nº.8/Grand Duo. DG 423 655-2. Deutsche Grammophon.
Gibbs, Christopher H. (1994). "About Schubert's Arrangers: Mottl, Liszt, Brahms, Joachim". American Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
Shore, Bernard (1950). Sixteen Symphonies. Readers Union.
Horowitz, Joseph (November 26, 2000). "Music; A Schubert Masterpiece in a Rare Package". New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2016.

External links

Sonata for Piano Duet: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Piano compositions and sonatas by Franz Schubert

Two hands

Sonatas	E major–B major, D 157 C major–A minor, D 279 E major, D 459 E minor, D 769A A minor, D 537 (Op. posth. 164) A-flat major–E-flat major, D 557 E minor–A-flat major, D 566 D-flat major, D 567/568 E-flat major, D 568 (Op. posth. 122) F-sharp minor, D 571 B major, D 575 (Op. posth. 147) C major, D 613 F minor, D 625 C-sharp minor, D 655 A major, D 664 (Op. posth. 120) A minor, D 784 (Op. posth. 143) C major "Reliquie", D 840 A minor, D 845 (Op. 42) D major "Gasteiner", D 850 (Op. 53) G major "Fantasy", D 894 (Op. 78) C minor, D 958 A major, D 959 B-flat major, D 960

Fantasies	Wanderer Fantasy, D 760 "Fantasy" Sonata, D 894

Piano pieces	Allegro in E major, D 154 Minuet in A minor, D 277A Rondo in C major, D 309A Allegretto in C major, D 346 Fünf Klavierstücke (Five Piano Pieces), D 459 Drei Klavierstücke (Three Piano Pieces), D 459A Adagio in D-flat major, D 505 Rondo/Allegretto in E major, D 506 Scherzo/Allegro vivace in D major & Allegro in F-sharp minor, D 570 (Andante) in A major, D 604 Adagio in E major, D 612 Moments musicaux, D 780 (Op. 94) Impromptus, D 899 (Op. 90) & D 935 (Op. posth. 142) — Impromptus/Klavierstücke, D 946

Variations	Vaterländischer Künstlerverein II: Variation No. 38 on a waltz by Diabelli, D 718 Impromptu, D 935 (Op. posth. 142) No. 3 "Rosamunde"

Dances	Minuet in A minor, D 277A Valses Sentimentales, D 779 (Op. 50) — Valses Nobles, D 969 (Op. 77)

Four hands

Sonatas

violin and piano	Violin Sonata in A major "(Grand) Duo", D 574 (Op. posth. 162)

arpeggione and piano	Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D 821

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