Franz Schubert: Sämtliche Klaviersonaten & Klavierwerke Vol.8 "Melodist"

Schubert composed his Sonata No. 4 in A minor (D. 537), a work of unadorned romanticism, in 1817. While the outer sections are very dramatic in character, the central slow movement contains a long and enchanting melody of almost fragile delicacy.

Eleven years later, in 1828, he returned to this melody and used it as the theme for the final movement of Sonata No. 19 in A major D. 959, his penultimate sonata.

This Allegretto is perhaps the most 'Schubertian' of all: It is generous, gracious, full of hope despite heavy melancholy and always in motion. Schubert's return to the melody, which he composed when he was twenty, testifies to his special love for it; it was his personal hymn, his secret melody.