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Schubert’s B-Flat Piano Sonata D960

The DocumentarySoul Music

How Schubert's B-Flat Piano Sonata D960 has shaped the lives of three remarkable pianists.

The B-Flat Piano Sonata D960, which Schubert completed two months before his death, in 1828, is a vast and complex work. It is the last of a triptych of piano sonatas that Schubert wrote, possibly in response to the death of his hero Beethoven the year before. Schubert had been a pallbearer at Beethoven’s funeral.

In this programme, pianists Imogen Cooper, Steven Osborne and James Lisney consider what it is like to play this work. And Andrea Avery and Pamela Rose describe ways in which this sonata has marked and shaped their lives.

(Photo: Portrait of Franz Peter Schubert (Vienna, 1797-1828), Austrian composer. Credit: DEA/A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images)

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27 minutes

Last on

Sun 17 Nov 201918:32GMT
BBC World Service News Internet

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Broadcasts

  • Wed 13 Nov 201911:32GMT
    BBC World Service except West and Central Africa
  • Wed 13 Nov 201918:32GMT
    BBC World Service Australasia
  • Wed 13 Nov 201921:32GMT
    BBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
  • Wed 13 Nov 201923:32GMT
    BBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
  • Thu 14 Nov 201902:32GMT
    BBC World Service except West and Central Africa
  • Thu 14 Nov 201903:32GMT
    BBC World Service West and Central Africa
  • Sun 17 Nov 201918:32GMT
    BBC World Service News Internet