Arpeggione Sonate 3 Sonatinas opus 150

Description

Franz Schubert, born in Vienna in 1797 and died there in 1828, left an extensive oeuvre behind. He enjoyed only a modest celebrity during his lifetime, but a small group of devoted friends and admirers were able to appreciate his compositions. Many of his works which are most famous today remained unknown until after his death. Such was the case with the Sonata in a minor for piano and arpeggione, composed in 1824 for Vinzenz Schuster, a friend and guitarist. The arpeggione, with its six strings, frets, and to be played with a bow, was something of a crossing between a cello and a guitar. It was designed in 1823 by the Viennese guitar builder Johann Georg Staufer (1778-1853). Not until 1867 was the a minor sonata rediscovered by SIr George Grove, who found it, together with the scores of “Rosamunde”, in the library of the Vienna “Musikverein”. Grove was not familiar with the arpeggione; when the piece was published in 1871, additional versions for violin and cello were supplied. Schubert did not compose many instrumental duets. He had already composed the “Sonate frs Pianoforte mit Begleitung der Violine” (D major) in 1816, probably as an occasional piece. Diabelli published this work posthumously in 1836, together with the two other violin sonatas of the same year, as the “Sonatinas” for violin and piano Opus 137….