by Norah Drewett and Geza de Kresz
ALTHOUGH Schubert, more than any other of the great masters, is known and loved by the ordinary listener, it is on quite a small number of his pieces that that popularity rests. It is possible to produce a vast number of Schubert's works which are still unknown, not merely to the casual listener, to whom it matters very little who made his music for him, but even to the enthusiast-even to all but a very few of Schubert's own special devotees. He left, for instance, four Sonatas, a Phantasie, and this Rondo, all for Pianoforte and Violin, which are practically unknown except to violinists, though on the rare occasions on which they are played the listener always wonders why he has not had a chance of hearing them before. The Rondo Brillante bears the earliest number of his pieces for violin and pianoforte—Opus 70. It was published in 1827, the year before he died, when ill-health and unkind circumstancos were already besetting him.