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There are a few tropes when it comes to Schubert\u2019s late music. The pieces are very long. They have four movements.\xa0 The first two movemnts are expansive, magisterial explorations of the human psyche, and the last two movements are much lighter, almost like two different pieces are at play. All of these tropes fit the Schubert B Flat Sonata we started talking about a couple of weeks ago. After the huge first movement, Schubert takes us into a world of the most remarkably simple and yet profoundly moving music in the second movement, followed by a scherzo and last movement that seem(and I emphasize the word seem) to wash all of that away. The last two movements of this sonata in particular have come in for criticism in some quarters, but this is nothing new for Schubert. You hear this criticism about his G Major Quartet, his cello quintet, and other large scale works. It\u2019s also been theorized that the final two movement \u201ccurse\u201d Schubert seemed to struggle with is why he left his 8th symphony unfinished. But as you\u2019ll hear today, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much, if anything, to criticize in these final two movements, and I\u2019ll try to argue that there\u2019s no drop off in quality in this music, just a different approach and outlook. But the bulk of today\u2019s show will be about this second movement. There is something beyond otherworldy in this character of Schubert\u2019s music. It doesn\u2019t belong to our world, but it doesn\u2019t belong to another world either. Instead it goes somewhere even deeper than we can possibly imagine. Schubert goes to a different place than any other composer when he is in this \u201cmood,\u201d and in this movement, that bleak character is married to profound consolation, creating a movement of utter perfection. So let\u2019s explore the final three movements of this remarkable Sonata together. Join us!