The first movement of Schubert’s Sonata #20 is literally the longest in the entire set of three final sonatas, but quite apart from this crude measurement, Schubert manages to transport us beyond our sense of ordinary time through his juxtapositions of near and far, close-up and panorama.
The relaxed though solemn flow of the opening hymnlike theme has often been compared with Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio, but the mysterious trill he introduces deep beneath the theme’s final chord (followed by a long pause), raises a question that will reverberate throughout the movement’s sprawling expanse. This chromatic disruption not only alters the color of the opening theme but points the way toward further harmonic digressions.
The slow movement is in the minor, and it expands on the contemplative and even valedictory character of the first movement.
The frothy Scherzo, so unusually delicate, gently brings us back from the spheres where the preceding music has elevated us, while the trio swerves unexpectedly into B-flat minor.
To conclude this extraordinary Sonata–and this sublime trilogy–Schubert begins with a gesture of indirection, moving from C minor to the tonic: a gesture that is analogous to the mysterious trill of the opening.
Here is Mr. Brendel; and pay special attention to the slow movement of Schubert’s music:
