# Schubert Piano Sonata, D 850



## Beebert (Jan 3, 2019)

This is the most underrated sonata I have ever come across. I don't find it inferior to the late 3 sonatas. The first movement is the most difficult to come to terms with musically, for me, but after that, the music making is just superlative. It contains one of the most beautiful and inspired second movements I have ever heard. And the scherzo is my favorite from all sonatas, with its utterly magnificient trio. And the last movement is pure Schubert...
What do you others think of this sonata? Why is it not more well known? It is stuck in my head and I find myself walking around singing different themes from it all the time.
My favorite recording is by Sviatoslav Richter... If you haven't heard it, do listen to it!!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I don’t like it apart from the second movement, which I like a lot.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I do like it, and find the overall mood of the piece fascinating. It seems to have a reputation of being a happy-go-lucky work, mainly (I suspect) because of the last movement, but to me there's a lot more than that going on this piece. Even in the last movement I get a real sense of tears behind the smile. The Richter version I've heard (there's more than one, I believe) is a very fine one for sure, but I've imprinted on Clifford Curzon's venerable but still marvellous reading on Decca.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

There is a little known recording from the early '70s by the then young Soviet pianist Aleksei Nasedkin that is absolutely superb and sold me on the work. Was issued in the US. on Angel/Melodya (EMI).


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## agoukass (Dec 1, 2008)

I've listened to this sonata for years and never found it difficult to wrap my head around the first movement. The first recording I ever heard was by Wilhelm Kempff, but my favorite is one by the young Vladimir Ashkenazy.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The first movement is to jaunty for me, too bouncy. Just not the sort of music I like.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It's my least favorite of the late-ish Schubert sonatas. The first movement is rather "brutal" (apparently Schubert's inspiration was Beethoven's op.10/3,i) and Schubert did a similar style better and more compact with the Wandererfantasie. 
The finale is rather trivial, even for Schubert sonatas that seem to have only two finale options, either a "tarantella of death" like in the c minor or a "Viennese Kaffeehaus/Heurigen Rondo with a few dark intermezzi. I like the slow movement, especially the ending but it's also behind other late Schubert slow movements for me.
I'd rather have Schubert finishing the "Reliquie" D 840 which I find a far more interesting piece than D 850.


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## EnescuCvartet (Dec 16, 2016)

The D784 is also great.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Yes, I prefer 664 and 784 to 850.


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