Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 11, IV. Finale. Allegro un poco maestoso (Hewitt)

Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 11 IV. Finale. Allegro un poco maestoso Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11, is a large four-movement Romantic sonata, one of his most idiosyncratic works, described by the scholar Eric Frederick Jensen as the most unconventional and intriguing of the composer's sonatas. Its material was sketched from an 1832 Fandango, composed mainly in 1833, and given its final form in 1835, when Schumann delivered the manuscript to Clara Wieck; it was published by Kistner in Leipzig in 1836. The sonata is dedicated to Clara, the title page signed not by Schumann but by his literary alter egos Florestan and Eusebius, a coded gesture from the years when Clara's father had forbidden the couple's contact. Schumann called the work a solitary outcry for her in which her theme appears in every possible shape, and the whole sonata is bound by recurring motifs: the slow introduction previews the Aria, and a falling-fifth idea, which nods to Clara Wieck's own Ballet of the Ghosts from her Op. 5, seeds the driving Allegro. The four movements are an Introduzione and Allegro vivace, a song-based Aria in A major, a Scherzo with a mock-pompous polonaise trio, and a long rondo-sonata Finale that turns from F-sharp minor to F-sharp major. The Finale is marked Allegro un poco maestoso and begins in F-sharp minor, ending the sonata in F-sharp major. A long, sprawling rondo-sonata, it is the most expansive movement of the work and a summation of its Florestan and Eusebius contrasts, alternating driving episodes with lyrical ones across a broad span. The sonata as a whole was called by its composer a solitary outcry for Clara in which her theme appears in every possible shape, and the Finale gathers that recurring material toward a close. Its turn from the home minor to F-sharp major brings the turbulent work to a hard-won brightening, the resolution toward which the four movements have moved. Placed after the whirling Scherzo, the Finale caps the sonata's unusual, at times unruly design, a large and impassioned rondo that carries the coded love letter to its end. Angela Hewitt, piano From the album: Schumann: Humoreske & Piano Sonata No. 1 Released: 12 January 2024 Source: FLAC · 415 kbps UPC 00602458139112 Other movements of this work: · I. Introduzione. Un poco adagio – Allegro vivace:    • Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 11, I. I...   · II. Aria:    • Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-Sharp Mi...   · III. Scherzo. Allegrissimo – Intermezzo. Lento:    • Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 11, III....   Listen across larger scopes: · This work's playlist (autoplay):    • Angela Hewitt · Schumann: Piano Sonata No....   · Album playlist (autoplay):    • Angela Hewitt · Schumann: Humoreske & Pian...   #Schumann #Piano #Hewitt #ClassicalMusic