Franz Schubert

Sonata D 821

Franz Schubert wrote his Sonata in A minor D 821 for piano and arpeggione, a hybrid instrument between guitar and violoncello that briefly came into fashion in the 1820s. Today, the piece has become a standard work for cello and piano, an instrumentation for which the present edition is also intended. For the few players of an arpeggione, a separate arpeggione part will be available for download.

However, a hitherto little-noticed handwritten violin part in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which is in the hand of Anton Diabelli, shows that the sonata, written for the arpeggione, which was only in use for a short time, was first arranged for violin and piano long before the well-known version for violoncello and piano appeared with the first printing in 1871. The Wiener Urtext Edition therefore also presents Diabelli's arrangement for violin and piano in a separate edition.
Both editions are essentially based on Schubert's surviving autograph. The violoncello part is based on the first edition, the violin part follows Diabelli's arrangement.