by KATHLEEN LONG
Schubert's Sonata in A is one of three written in September 1828, only a couple of months before the composer's death, and published posthumously. Even at the end of his career Schubert's attitude to the keyboard was still very conservative (as in the slow movement of this Sonata). Not a very good pianist himself, his keyboard compositions were largely conditioned by his own limitations, but within those limits he produced effects of remarkable beauty. The first movement, in particular, is full of Schubertian romanticism. The final rondo has for its main theme a curious variant of a melody previously used in the A minor Sonata, Op. 164.