Menuetto & Rondo [Alf:98-EP71559A]

Schubert's unfinished Sonata in C, D 840, dates from April 1825. Many commentators have expressed surprise that the outstanding Moderato in C and the very fine, if less original, Andante in C minor were followed by two incomplete movements.The first and second movements are of course pure Schubert. The present score consists of the Minuet, now completed with regard to both authentic style and the formal demands of this most unusual torso, while the sketchy Trio has been rounded out, and the Finale. This is interpreted and amplified to make sense of the original 200 bars of exposition, but Schubert's very weak commencement of an idling development could not be accommodated, and has been scrapped to make way for a more energetic Sonata-Rondo design with freshly composed development, return and coda, bringing the movement to a fully proportioned Schubertian design of some 600 bars.