The Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor, D. 821, was written by Franz Schubert in Vienna in November 1824. The sonata is the only substantial composition for the arpeggione (which was essentially a bowed guitar) extant today. The sonata was composed in November 1824, about a month after he had returned to Vienna from his second stay in Zseliz. It has been adapted to other string instruments, especially the cello. History The piece was probably commissioned by Schubert's friend Vincenz Schuster, who was a virtuoso of the arpeggione, an instrument which had been invented only the previous year. By the time the sonata was published posthumously in 1871, the enthusiasm for the novelty of the arpeggione had long since vanished, together with the instrument itself. Movements The work consists of three movements. A typical performance takes just over 20 minutes. Performance history Today, the piece is heard almost exclusively in transcriptions for cello and piano or viola and piano that were arranged after the posthumous publication, although versions that substitute other instruments—including double bass, flute, euphonium, alto saxophone and clarinet for the arpeggione, or guitar or harp for the piano part—are also performed. Transcribers have attempted to address the problems posed by the smaller playing range of these alternative instruments, in comparison with the arpeggione, as well as the attendant modifications in articulation (4 versus 6 strings). Notable arrangements include: Gaspar Cassadó – cello and orchestra Göran Söllscher – violin and guitar James Galway – flute Dobrinka Tabakova – viola and string orchestra David Werden – Euphonium and Piano Kenneth Radnofsky – Alto Saxophone and Piano Brian Newbould – clarinet quintet The work has been recorded in the original version by the following musicians: Klaus Storck and Alfons Kontarsky (1974, LP No 2533 174 on the Archiv Produktion label). Klaus Storck played an arpeggione attributed to Anton Mitteis, a student of the instrument's inventor, Johann Georg Stauffer; Alfons Kontarsky played a Brodmann fortepiano built in Vienna ca. 1810. Alfred Lessing and Jozef De Beenhouwer (2000–2001, Ars Produktion FCD 368 392). Played on a copy by Henning Aschauer of an early 19th-century instrument built either by J. G. Staufer or by Anton Mitteis, at present in the Musical Instrument Collection of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and on the 1824 Conrad Graf pianoforte from the Beethoven House in Bonn. Gerhart Darmstadt and Egino Klepper (2005, Cavalli Records CCD 242)