General Overview

Autograph manuscripts for the first two movements of this sonata survive. These manuscripts bear the title "Sonate" and the date "August 1816," breaking off at the beginning of the recapitulation of the second movement.

When this work was published posthumously, it appeared as a five-movement (five-piece) composition. When it was first published in Leipzig in 1842, the publisher likely completed the recapitulation of the second movement and simultaneously appended the third to fifth pieces from other works, publishing them as "Five Piano Pieces." The reason the five-movement structure is attributed to the publisher rather than Schubert is twofold: the presence of two scherzo movements, and the fact that the autograph manuscript for the fifth piece (where it survives) continues with the Adagio in C major, D 349, after the final eight measures. Consequently, in the work catalogue, the first and second pieces from the first edition are distinguished as the two movements of the legitimate "Piano Sonata D 459," while the third to fifth pieces are categorized as "Three Piano Pieces D 459A."

Movement-by-Movement Analysis

Movement 1: Allegro moderato, E major, 4/4 time

Taking sonata form, the exposition is more clearly laid out compared to the opening movements of the previous two piano sonatas. The first theme is presented in E major at the beginning, reaching a half cadence in measure 20. Using this dominant chord as the tonic of a new key, the second theme is presented, and a further theme is introduced in B major (m. 33).

In later years, Schubert would construct his expositions with theme groups spanning three key areas by inserting a mediant key area between the tonic and dominant regions (for details, refer to the analysis of Piano Sonata No. 21, D 960). From this perspective, the present sonata, with its three presented themes, can be situated within the process of stylistic development.

Unlike the previous two works, modulations are largely suppressed in the exposition of this sonata and are actively employed in the development section. The development section (mm. 54–79) is rich in contrast, not only in terms of modulation but also dynamics.

In measure 80, the opening theme returns in A major, initiating the recapitulation. Recapitulation in the subdominant key is famously seen in the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545 first movement, but it was also a technique Schubert himself had already used in Piano Sonata No. 2, D 279. Just as the exposition progressed to the key a fifth above, the second and third themes return in the key a fifth higher than A major, bringing the movement to a close.

Movement 2: Allegro, E major, 3/4 time

This movement is generally interpreted as a scherzo movement, but it differs from Schubert's other scherzo movements in two respects:

• First, the composer did not label it "Minuet" or "Scherzo" at the beginning, nor "Trio" in the middle section.
• Second, while Schubert's dance movements typically adopt an AB or ABA form in the main and trio sections, and conventionally feature repeat signs in two places—midway through and at the end of the main section—this movement differs by having a repeat sign only at the end of the main section.

This movement opens with a monophonic unison. Beginning in E major, it proceeds through a sudden E minor (m. 20) before cadencing in B major, after which the opening melody is developed with a lively accompaniment, remaining in B major (mm. 26ff.). In measure 50, the rhythmic roles of both hands are exchanged, and a new melody emerges. From measure 102 onward, which can be considered the trio section, the latter phrase of the theme beginning in measure 13 is repeated, leading to a series of modulations through various keys. The autograph manuscript breaks off in measure 142, which appears to be the end of the trio.

Considering the large scale of the main section, the presence of a double bar line only at its end, and the developmental character of measures 102–142, which utilize material from the first half, the entire movement could also be interpreted as being in sonata form.