Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in a minor op. post. 164, presented here in an Urtext edition, numbers among his early sonatas written between 1815 and 1819. In many of these pieces, Schubert still struggles with form; the Sonata in a minor from March 1817, however, is already wonderfully accomplished. In contrast to Schubert's two later a-minor piano sonatas, the key here does not yet result in a tragic, fatalistic sound. This is also due to the fact that he took every opportunity to brighten the key to the major, or to swerve into neighbouring, friendlier harmonic regions.