page_title: Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Schubert)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Schubert) / History
context_page_description: Franz Schubert wrote his Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812, in June 1824 during his second stay at the Esterházy estate in Zseliz. The extended work, in four movements, has a performance time of around 40 to 45 minutes. It was published as Grand Duo, Op. 140, in 1837, nine years after the composer's death.
  Robert Schumann saw Beethoven's influence in the work, and thought of it as the piano version of a symphony. Joseph Joachim's orchestration of the work was performed from the 19th to the 21st century. From the second half of the 20th century the Sonata was however more readily appreciated as a piano piece with orchestral effects, like many other piano works by Schubert, than as a symphony in disguise.
context_section_description: In 1818 Count János Károly Esterházy de Galántha (German: Johann Karl Esterházy von Galánta) hired Schubert as music teacher for his daughters, Mária Terezia and Karoline, when the family was staying at their summer residence in Zseliz, at that time in rural Hungary. Schubert was in Zseliz from 7 July to 19 November, around which time he wrote his Sonata in B-flat major for piano four-hands, D 617. In May 1822, Schubert dedicated his Op. 8, a collection of four songs (D 702, 516, 586 and 539), to Count János Károly. Later that year the composer contracted syphilis, suffering from the condition for the largest part of 1823, partially recovering towards the end of the year. His Op. 30, the B-flat major piano duet Sonata of 1818, was published in December. A few months later symptoms of his illness regained momentum. In a letter of 31 March to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser, he describes the failure of his latest opera projects and voices his despair over his health situation. In the letter he also mentions his latest chamber music compositions (the String Quartets D 804 and 810, and the Octet D 803), and his plan to write another Quartet, after which he adds:
  He ends the letter referring to his anticipated second visit to Zseliz:
  On 7 May Schubert attended the concert in which Beethoven presented his 9th Symphony. Feeling better health-wise, he was in Zseliz by the end of the month, again as music teacher of the Esterházy family for the summer season. Around this time his friend Moritz von Schwind wrote to Kupelwieser informing him that the composer had left for Hungary, planning to write a symphony. The Deutsch catalogue lists three compositions, all for piano four-hands, which Schubert composed during his first couple of months in Zseliz:
  Sonata in C major, D 812: autograph parts dated June 1824.
  Eight Variations on an original theme, D 813, composed between late May and the middle of July.
  Four Ländler, D 814, composed in July.
  In the second half of July the composer wrote to his brother Ferdinand, starting with an analysis of the sorrow brought by his absence, followed by:
  This indicates that these pieces for piano four-hands were performed there and then, shortly after their completion by the composer, maybe even by the young countesses, his pupils. By around July 1824 symptoms of Schubert's venereal disease were as good as gone, which they would remain for the next two years. In August he writes to Schwind, again mentioning the Sonata D 812 and Variations D 813:
  The "attracting star" is interpreted as referring to Countess Karoline, who was going to turn 19 in September. Still in August, Schwind wrote to Schober:
  A few weeks after Karoline's birthday, Schubert feels even more desolate than a month earlier when writing to Schwind – from the composer's letter of 21 September 1824 to Schober (who had left Vienna in 1823):
  Schubert returned to Vienna in October, in a carriage together with Baron Karl von Schönstein, a friend of Count Esterházy to whom Schubert had dedicated Die schöne Müllerin and who had participated, together with the composer and members of the Esterházy family, in music performances at Zseliz. Some three decades later, after becoming a champion of Schubert's music, Schönstein wrote:
  In the summer of 1825, Schubert stayed in Gmunden from early June to the middle of July, and in Bad Gastein from the middle of August till early September. Contemporary correspondence of his friends makes clear he was working on a Symphony, later dubbed Gmunden-Gastein Symphony. In March 1828, on the anniversary of Beethoven's death, Schubert gave his only public concert: its scale was somewhat smaller than the ambition he voiced in his letter to Kupelwieser four years earlier (only chamber music was performed), but it was a considerable success. That same year he composed his last major work for piano four-hands, the Fantasia in F minor, D 940, which he dedicated to Karoline Esterházy. In 1829, the year after Schubert's death, it was published as his Op. 103. That year, some of the obituaries written by Schubert's friend
caption: Schubert in 1825, watercolor by Wilhelm August Rieder.
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