LDV72

14 SCHUBERT_ PIANO SONATAS D845 & D850 As always with Schubert, the key to the piano works may be found in a lied. At the heart of Totengräbers Heimweh D842 (The gravedigger longs for home – a poem by Craigher) written at the same time as the Sonata D845, we read the following words, set over a unison motif in the piano part that is pitted with ornaments identical in every respect to the first theme of the sonata’s Moderato in alla breve time: ‘ Von allen verlassen, / Dem Tod nur verwandt, / Verweil ich am Rande, / Das Kreuz in der Hand, / Und starre mit sehnendem Blick, / Hinab ins tiefe Grab! ’ 1 Schubert attaches no importance to the second theme of this first movement: all that counts for him is the struggle between the incessantly reiterated unisons, from virtual silence to almost unbearable intensity, and the accentuated rhythmic motif, ever more vehement and grimacing. 1. Abandoned by all, / With Death my only kin, / I linger on the edge, / Cross in hand, / And stare longingly / Down into the deep grave!