SCHUBERT & CHOPIN

A HAUSMUSIK CONCERT - SATURDAY 5 APRIL & SUNDAY 6TH APRIL 2025 3PM  

Though near contemporaries, Schubert and Chopin were worlds apart.

Aside from his 600 songs, Schubert, like the other ‘greats’ of the classic era, was locked into a tradition of large-scale sonata composing. In his short life he produced 23 piano sonatas, each with an average length of 30+ minutes. (Beethoven’s tally was 32, and Mozart’s, 19). In addition to sonatas for piano and other instruments, symphonies, concerti and other chamber music genres show us that these classical composers spent most of their energy on extended musical statements.

Schubert’s D major sonata was written while on holidays in the spa town of Gastein; this was accomplished in a little over 2 weeks during August 1825. While his friend, Vogl, took to the local spa to attempt to cure his gout, Schubert wrote several songs (including the famous Ave Maria) and the 40-minute sonata we will hear today.

Chopin, on the other hand, specialised in composing for the piano only. He was a master of piano technique and equally at home in monumental works (sonatas, scherzi and ballades) as he was in composing miniatures. Each was an elegant portrait of his world. The Mazurkas and Polonaises represent his native Poland, while Waltzes and Nocturnes were all the rage in cosmopolitan Paris, where Chopin spent so much of his time.

The composer, Glazunov, orchestrated a number of Chopin’s miniature pieces to make a non-narrative ballet, which he called Les Sylphides. Today we hear the Les Sylphides ballet in its original form, as piano music.

Musical notes by Robert Constable AM