Sonata in A minor D 821 "Arpeggione" arranged for Violoncello & Piano

Schubert Sonata in A minor D 821 "Arpeggione" arranged for Violoncello & Piano

In 1824, Schubert turned his attention to the “Bogen Gitarre”, an instrument invented just shortly before by Johann Georg Staufer in Vienna.  This stringed instrument with six strings and frets was also called guitar–violoncello, guitare d’amour or arpeggione, the latter name ascertainably used only by Schubert.  Like the violoncello, it is held between the knees and is “similar in form to the standard guitar, but has a greater range, overspun gut strings, and is not plucked by the fingers but bowed..."

The instrument somewhat resembles a viola pomposa or a baryton and like these, it was not able to impose itself in musical practice, and was forgotten after ten years.  Schubert was most likely stimulated to write for this instrument by Vinzenz Schuster a Viennese musician and fervent advocate of the new instrument.

Schubert’s music is impervious to the passage of time, and the Arpeggione Sonata, with its ethereal beauty, has become one of the immortal treasures of the chamber music repertoire.  This has led to the unique situation of a major work of art existing for an instrument that has long been extinct.

This volume is based on the Urtext of the New Schubert Edition; the solo part has been arranged for performance on the cello while the piano part is identical to Schubert´s original as presented in the New Schubert Edition.