Piano Sonata in G major, D. 894 (Schubert)

The Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major, D. 894 (Op. 78) by Franz Schubert is a sonata for solo piano, completed in October 1826. The work is sometimes called the "Fantaisie", a title which the publisher Tobias Haslinger gave to the first movement of the work, and not Schubert himself. It was the last of Schubert's sonatas published during his lifetime, and was later described by Schumann as the "most perfect in form and conception" of any of Schubert's sonatas.

The work is in four movements:

1. Molto moderato e cantabile, G major
2. Andante, D major
3. Menuetto, Allegro moderato, B minor and B major
4. Allegretto, G major

A typical performance runs approximately 35 minutes.

Mood and character

The English pianist and Schubert specialist Imogen Cooper has described the G major sonata as "one of the rare completely serene sonatas that he wrote," adding, "Of course, as ever with him, there are contrasting passages which become stormy and a little bit dark, but the overall mood is one of peace and luminosity, in a way that the G Major string quartet, written a few months before, was most definitely not." She noted further that "the last movement has tremendous wit in it — and one or two moments of great poignancy, as if a cloud suddenly covered the sun, and then the sun comes out again."

Nicholas Marston has briefly discussed the character and features of the sonata's first movement in preparation for the movement's recapitulation. Peter Pesic commented on Donald Francis Tovey's observation that Schubert used a "circle of sixths" series of key signatures in the fourth movement of this sonata, in the sequence G → E♭ → B = C♭ → G = A.

External links

• Recording by Serg van Gennip
• Piano Sonata D.894: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.