A sonata which illustrates beautifully Schumann’s narrative approach to the form, featuring typically vivid flights of fantasy bound together by the device of a falling perfect 5th. The falling 5th is first heard in the LH in the introduction [and is highlighted at 1:17 and 1:23], before it opens the main body of 1st movement [2:37] (with constant recurrences – 2:56, 3:00 etc). The 2nd movement unfolds over a sustained 5th in the bass, while the melody is punctuated by falling 5ths in the LH [12:56, 13:03, 14:29 etc], still with the same insistent dotted rhythm. In the 3rd movement the falling 5th appears in the LH at 16:04, and in the 4th movement the dotted falling 5th features prominently in the second theme: 19:56.
00:00 — Mvt 1. Featuring an extraordinary introduction, with a melody fully formed enough to be considered a self-contained entity. Even when the introductory theme returns at the centre of the ensuing Allegro [9:15!], its reappearance seems to be an interruption, a sudden space opening in the midst of profound violence. In reality, of course, the introduction is a startlingly original bit of long-range anticipation, since its falling 5ths bind the whole work together. Note also the rapid harmonic turns of the allegro, and the way the falling 5th is absorbed into the ornamentation.
12:37 — Mvt 2, Aria. Based on a song Schumann wrote when he was 18. It is significant that the falling 5ths were not in the original. Liszt singled out this movement for special praise, calling it ‘a song of great passion, expressed with fullness and calm’.
15:22 — Mvt 3. A scherzo with two trios. The first quasi-trio’s opening bars are underpinned by the 1st movement’s ‘rocking’ fifths motif, played pianissimo leggierissimo. The second trio (‘Intermezzo’) is a lovely parody of a polonaise, and Schumann marks it, appropriately enough, Alla burla, ma pomposo. There is a further surprise in store before the scherzo returns: a recitative, with a lone oboe rudely silenced by the whole orchestra, before the scherzo returns *at the wrong pitch* —a typically Schumannesque touch.
19:33 — Mvt 3, Finale. A sonata-rondo featuring some pretty cool textures: tremolos mimicking a crescendo over a drum roll; a staccato passage near the close, marked quasi pizzicato; tutti chords punched out at top speed [22:17]. Notice how Schumann, with wicked inventiveness, pushes a duple-metre theme into the strait-jacket of three beats to the bar: rhythmic playfulness was one of the hallmarks of his style. The dramatic differences between this movement’s two themes mirror the characters which Schumann quasi-allegorically adopted when composing: Florestan and Eusebius (representing the more turbulent and reflective sides of his character respectively).
Perahia handles the interpretative challenges of this difficult work extremely well: the rhythms are vital and intense, the knotty passages clear, the contrasts sharply (but not schizophrenically) outlined, and there is a clear sense of a coherent whole (often difficult to achieve in Schumann).