Franz Schubert Archive

Franz Schubert’s “Ständchen” (Serenade), dates from Schubert’s last months. The song, based on a poem by Rellstab, was collected by Schubert’s publisher in the posthumous cycle called “Schwanengesang”. The text describes a lover’s declarations to …

Schubert’s three piano sonatas, D 958, 959 and 960, were written in the last years of the composer’s life and are today considered some of the most important works in the piano repertoire. Their individual, …

Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata was composed in 1824 but only published in 1871, long after the composer’s death in 1828, and almost as long after the principal instrument for which it was written fell out of …

The Arpeggione Sonata has the essential Viennese quality of smiling through tears. Schubert does this with sudden key changes from major to minor, highly chromatic harmonies, and elegant textures that connect it all. A subtle …

The Schubert Impromptu No 2 in A flat minor is really mostly built off a theme so warm and touching I would still love it if the piece just ended after the first repeat. However, …