David Dalle
Thursday December 19th, 2024 with David Dalle
Winter Solstice journey from darkness to light with Schubert and new Sun Ra Arkestra

During the darkest time of the year, humanity has always cried out from the darkness, in hope, in joy, in the celebration of family, friends and community. Music is central to this and we take a journey from darkness to light through music. This year, once again, Schubert provides us with the darkness with his piano sonata in A major. In the last two years of his tragically short life, Schubert had a miraculous outpouring of incredible masterpieces, unmatched by any other great composer, perhaps any other artist. He composed his two piano trios, his string quintet, Winterreise, Mass in E flat, Impromptus, and other works, including his three final piano sonatas. Three sonatas in c minor, A major, and B flat major. Surprisingly, the A major sonata is the darkest one. This work opens with a broad and warm movement, extremely rich in motifs and gorgeous melodies typical of Schubert. But there is no preparation for the nightmare to come in the second movement, the andantino in f# minor. In the notes of the Pollini recording we will hear today, Italian musicologist Paolo Petazzi writes: "the andantino is one of Schubert's most tragically tormented movements. The opening atmosphere is wretched and desolate: to a simple, rocking accompaniment a melody unfolds which seems to circle insistently around its first note, as if weighed down by a painful burden. There is a shattering transition to the central section, a wildly delirious explosion in which it would be pointless to seek the outline of a theme: fragmentary motifs pile up on one another, with strikingly original harmonies and modulations, in a kind of access of pain remarkably close to the conciousness of contemporary music. Then the desolate calm of the first episode returns, enriched with variants which merely make its pain more intense." Of that central section of the andantino, German author Dieter Hildebrandt writes "Just...weeks before his death Schubert composed a two-page inferno for the piano. There was no longer any question of major or minor, although one can just about pick out caricatures of key signatures...he simply raged, come hell or high water. In the middle section of the andantino of this late A major sonata there is a disaster, an explosion." Following this nightmare, the third movement is a bright scherzo which provides a necessary respite. There are hints of violence and reminiscences of the first movement, and the overall brightness of this movement is not convincing. The closing rondo suggests we are back in the comforting embrace of home. Once again flowing with gorgeous, warm and expansive melodies as only Schubert can write. The rondo follows the form A-B-A-C-A-B-A-coda. However, I believe Schubert deceives us here, perhaps Schubert has deceived himself. As the music approaches the coda, it suddenly halts, then begins again, then stops once more, and restarts tentatively in a different register. It continues to stop and start a few more times, until the mask drops off and it is suddenly brought violently and rapidly to a conclusion. In A major, yes, but with Schubert the major key is often more biting. From one of the songs from Winterreise, "Einsamkeit": Ach, daß die Luft so ruhig! Ach, daß die Welt so licht! Als noch die Stürme tobten, war ich so elend nicht. Pity the air is so calm, pity the world is so bright! When the storms still howled I was not so miserable. Schubert performed all three sonatas during an evening gathering on September 28th. Six weeks later he was dead at 31 years of age. For this performance, we hear the Maurizio Pollini recording he made in Vienna in 1983. This recording of the final sonatas was a runner up for my 30 for 30. This recording, particularly of the A major, utterly captivated me and taught me someone like Trent Reznor had nothing on Schubert with the expression of pain. Maurizio Pollini died earlier this year and I knew this would be my choice for the Winter Solstice.