Piano Sonata in G major, D 894 (Schubert)

The sonata consists of four movements:

1. Molto moderato e cantabile (G major, largely conforming to sonata form)
2. Andante (D major, with two trios, the first in B minor, the relative minor, and the second in the parallel minor, D minor)
3. Menuetto: Allegro moderato - Trio (B minor, trio in B major)
4. Allegretto (G major)

The English pianist and Schubert specialist Imogen Cooper has described the G major sonata as "one of the rare completely serene sonatas that he wrote," adding, "Of course, as ever with him, there are contrasting passages which become stormy and a little bit dark, but the overall mood is one of peace and luminosity, in a way that the G Major string quartet, written a few months before, was most definitely not". She noted further that "the last movement has tremendous wit in it — and one or two moments of great poignancy, as if a cloud suddenly covered the sun, and then the sun comes out again".^[4]

The third movement's opening theme is remarkably similar to the second theme of the first movement of Schubert's second Piano Trio both in rhythm and note progression.

Peter Pesic commented on Donald Francis Tovey's observation that Schubert used a "circle of sixths" series of key signatures in the fourth movement of this sonata, in the sequence G → E♭ → B = C♭ → G = A .^[5]

Pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Paul Lewis stated that this was their favourite Schubert sonata.^[6][7] The former is notable for his extremely slow interpretation of the first movement,^[8] and solemn account of the work, making the whole sonata usually last over 45 minutes in total. For Christian Zachariasthis Schubert’s sonata belongs to beloved composition.

• Piano Sonata in G major, D. 894: Schubert's autograph manuscript in the British Library
• Recording by Serg van Gennip
• Piano Sonata D.894: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project