Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Nikolaus Lahusen :: Schubert: Piano Sonata, D960 / Three Piano Pieces, D946

A mere three sonatas appeared in print in Schubert's lifetime. Others out of his musical bequest were published a few years after his death by friends and were given posthumous opus numbers. One of these was the monumental Sonata B flat major D 960 which was the last of the posthumous sonatas and as such Schubert's last instrumental composition of all.Schubert made an essential contribution to the piano music of the Romantic period not only with his sonatas but also with his cycles of piano pieces. The Three Piano Pieces D 946 are works of such an intimate, confessional nature emerging in the last year before his death; character pieces which gained increasing popularity in the first three decades of the 19th century at a time when his piano sonatas had begun to lose some of their initial favor with the public.An original Conrad Graf Hammerfluegel from the Dutch collection of Edwin Beunk was played by Nikolaus Lahusen on this recording. Built in 1835, this instrument is the like of which would have been played in Schubert's day. The Graf piano is heard on this recording for the first time on CD.