Beethoven, Franz Schubert: musical dialogue and the C-minor series.

No investigation of the C-minor dialogue among composers can be complete without the astonishing C-minor sonata by Franz Schubert, whose birthday we recognized on January 31. Schubert, a native of Vienna, was 15 years Beethoven’s junior, although he died just one year after Beethoven at the age of 31. In fact, he was one of the pallbearers at Beethoven’s funeral. His C-minor sonata, D958, is often performed together with Beethoven’s 32 Variations on an Original Theme, WoO 80 also in C minor, with which it has obvious affinities.  Notes by Margaret Scialdone.

Beethoven’s variations are performed by Sookkyung Cho: 

and Schubert’s sonata by Sergey Kuznetsov: