Franz Schubert’s Last Three Sonatas

Les Trois Dernières Sonates de Franz Schubert

A portrait of pianist Alfred Brendel performing and analysing Franz Schubert’s last three sonatas.

  • Director

    Chantal Akerman

  • With

    Alfred Brendel

  • France 1989. 49min

  • Digital

  • English subtitles

Esteemed pianist, poet and intellectual Alfred Brendel here performs and reflects on Franz Schubert’s final three sonatas, while Akerman draws attention to the physicality of his performances in long takes. Look out for the affinities between Schubert and Akerman: Brendel describes the 19th-century composer as ‘a wanderer on the precipice’, whose work demonstrates ‘a combination of psychological and formal elements as there should be in all good music’.

+ Three Stanzas on the Name Sacher

Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher

France 1989. Director Chantal Akerman. 12min. Digital. No dialogue

In a stylised city apartment at night, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, in her first on-screen collaboration with Akerman, performs three cello pieces composed by Henri Dutilleux.

Total running time 61min.

The screening of Franz Schubert’s Last Three Sonatas on Monday 3 March 18:20 NFT3 will include an extended intro by Adam Roberts, co-founder of A Nos Amours collective.