Franz Schubert spent a good part of spring 1817 and most of the following summer composing piano sonatas. The first of these 1817 sonatas, the Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 537, written during March and published some 35 years later as Opus 164, is also in fact the first work of its kind that he finished.
Schubert’s success as a composer of instrumental music would elude him for some time to come. The D. 537 reveals both those facets of genius that would enable him to eventually make his own mark on concert music, and those obstacles that, as a young composer, he at times found insurmountable.
Here is pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli to play this beautiful music for you.
