Schubert’s fondness for beginning movements with subdued unison statements finds expression in his melancholy Allegretto in C minor, D915, unpublished until 1870 but penned on April 26th, 1827. It was conceived as a farewell gift for his friend Ferdinand Walcher—a fine amateur singer, lawyer and recently appointed member of the imperial civil service—who had entered Schubert’s circle the previous year and was soon to leave Vienna to take up a posting to Venice.

The work’s combination of 6/8 metre and flowing arpeggios seems to hint at gondoliers’ songs its dedicatee would soon encounter, and the alternating minor/major tonalities evoke the regret of departure and hope of return. Momentum in the outer panels is twice interrupted by the arrival of two disquieting chords, while sighing gestures bring untroubled warmth to the movement’s chordal centrepiece in a glowing A flat major.

from notes by David Truslove © 2020