The Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in
A minor,
D. 821, was written by
Franz Schubert in Vienna in November
1824. The
sonata is the only substantial composition extant today for the
arpeggione (which was essentially a bowed guitar). The sonata was composed in November 1824, about a month after Schubert had returned to Vienna from his second stay in
Zseliz. It has been adapted to other string instruments, especially the
cello.
History
The piece was probably commissioned by Schubert's friend
Vincenz Schuster, who was a
virtuoso of the arpeggione, an instrument which had been invented only the previous year. By the time the sonata was published posthumously in
1871, the enthusiasm for the novelty of the arpeggione had long since vanished, together with the instrument itself.[1]
Today, the piece is heard almost exclusively in
transcriptions for
cello and
piano or
viola and piano that were arranged after the posthumous publication, although versions that substitute other instruments—including
double bass,
flute,
euphonium,
alto saxophone and
clarinet for the arpeggione, or
guitar or
harp for the piano part—are also performed. Transcribers have attempted to address the problems posed by the smaller
playing range of these alternative instruments, in comparison with the arpeggione, as well as the attendant modifications in
articulation (4 versus 6
strings).
Alfred Lessing and
Jozef De Beenhouwer (2000–2001, Ars Produktion FCD 368 392). Played on a copy by Henning Aschauer of an early 19th-century instrument built either by J. G. Staufer or by Anton Mitteis, at present in the Musical Instrument Collection of the
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and on the 1824
Conrad Graf pianoforte from the
Beethoven House in Bonn.
Nicolas Deletaille and
Paul Badura-Skoda (2006–2007, Fuga Libera FUG529). This recording was made in Florence (Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori) on a Benjamen La Brigue arpeggione (2001) and the fortepiano is a Conrad Graf (ca. 1820)
Lorenz Duftschmid (arpeggione by Caroline Zilmann & Steffen Milbradt, 1999 Meissen after Mitteis/Staufer ca. 1825) and Paul Gulda (fortepiano by Conrad Graf, 1824)
Emmanuel Girard and Chie Hirai
Guido Balestracci and Maude Gratton
Alexander Rudin and Aapo Höbarth (Conrad Graf, 1827)
Michal Kaňka (original arpeggione by Georg Stauffer, Vienna, 1832) and Jaromir Klepác (fortepiano by Joseph Donhal, Vienna, ca. 1808-1818) recorded the middle movement only of the sonata.
Other musicians recorded the work on historical instruments, but employed a historical cello rather than an arpeggione. Among those are the following:
Pieter Wispelwey (bohemian cello, 19th-century) and Paolo Giacometti (fortepiano by Salvatore Lagrassa, c. 1815).
Anner Bylsma (anonymous violoncello piccolo, 5 strings , Tirol. ca. 1700) and
Jos Van Immerseel (fortepiano by Johann Nepomuk Tröndlin, Leipzig, early 19th-century).
Stefano Veggetti (5 strings violoncello piccolo by Christian Gottfried Schönfelder, 1750) and Jos Van Immerseel (fortepiano by Conrad Graf, 1826).
^see also: AQUINO, F. Avellar de. "Six-Stringed Virtuoso". The Strad Magazine, Harrow, Middlesex, UK, v. 109, n. 1297, p. 500-507, 1998. (on the Arpeggione and Schubert's Sonata)
^"Disques – Pianoforte Ad Libitum". Pianoforte Ad Libitum – Centre International du Pianoforte (in French). 7 May 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
References
Aquino, F. Avellar de. "Six-Stringed Virtuoso". in The Strad Magazine, Harrow, Middlesex, UK, v. 109, n. 1297, p. 500–507, May 1998. (Article about the Arpeggione and also on Schubert's Sonata)
Sadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 16, 6th. ed., London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1980. s.v. “Schubert, Franz” by
Maurice J. E. Brown.
Tree, Michael, “Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.” The Strad Magazine, vol. 105, February 1994, p. 142. (Master-Class on the Sonata)