Schubert: Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 137

Featuring

Peter Takács
Sibbi Bernhardsson
Franz Schubert

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Critical Reception

When Anton Diabelli published Op. 137 nearly a decade after Schubert's death, he advertised them as 'sonatinas,' likely to appeal to an amateur market, despite the description being ill-suited to two of the sonatas.

Performer Biography

Sibbi Bernhardsson, the violinist on this album, was a member of the Pacifica Quartet for seventeen years, winning a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

Compositional Technique

Schubert's unique compositional voice is evident in his penchant for major-third-related harmonies, which he used to paint familiar musical landscapes with a 'Schubertian brush.'

Composition History

Schubert's Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Op. 137, were composed in a prolific two-month period in March-April 1816, when he was nineteen years old.

Instruments

Peter Takács, the pianist on this recording, performs on a Hamburg Steinway D piano.

Composer Biography

Franz Schubert, the composer, was a capable violinist and violist and had already written a significant body of work for strings before composing these sonatas.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Schubert greatly admired Mozart, writing in his diary that 'the magic notes of Mozart's music still gently haunt me' after hearing an unspecified string quintet by his predecessor.