Description
The 22 piano sonatas of Schubert paint a vivid portrait of the composer's tragically short life and his musical evolution. From the initial efforts of the gifted 16- to 19-year-old, one can trace a continuous development that culminated in the five great sonatas he composed in 1823 and 1826. These were followed by three masterworks written shortly before his death, which cemented Schubert's status as a composer of sonatas on par with Beethoven.
Volume II of the Henle Urtext edition features not only the expressive and technically sophisticated G major Sonata D 894 op. 78, but also Schubert's three late-career masterpieces in C minor, A major, and B-flat major. These seminal works foreshadowed the future of the piano sonata genre and have since become cornerstones of the classical canon.
