In 1828, Ferdinand Schubert, an older brother of the composer Franz Schubert, had bought an apartment in Vienna's Firmiansgasse, known today as Kettenbrückengasse. The apartment was not ready for his immediate use, as it needed to dry out. This offered an inexpensive--if unhealthy--opportunity to offer temporary accommodation to Franz. It was to prove the last residence for Franz, who had been suffering from a progressive infection since 1824, and was not destined to complete his 32nd year. In the few weeks until his death on November 19th, 1828, he was able to compose, aside from the String Quintet in C and from sketches for a large scale Symphony, three large Piano Sonatas (C Minor, A Major and B Flat Major), which are presented here as recorded by Alfredo Perl. In the course of his struggle with this genre, so dominated by Beethoven, Schubert had already begun 18 sonatas, and left nine incomplete. For many years, Schubert's instrumental works were regarded as inferior to his vocal music, perhaps due to the ever present lyricism in his music. These three Sonatas were only published eleven years after his passing away--in 1839--by A. Diabelli & Co. Nevertheless, they offer a rich variety of purely instrumental structures. The earlier Sonatas already contain some real jewels--Schubert could even be an extrovert innovator, as the Wanderer Fantasy proves. Although Schubert was never quite the ever progressive inventor, his highly imaginative and creative ideas realigned the piano sonata to his own form of expression and gave it new life alongside and after Beethoven. It is unclear whether the astonishingly fast composition of these Sonatas was due to an expectation on Schubert's part of more commissions, or whether it was a symptom of a last surge of creative energy before his terminal decline. The inner journeys of these Sonatas reveal infinite expanses. Externally, all three follow the classical tradition closely. However, each one fills this form with an irrepressible wealth of musical inspiration and retraces the full path of Schubert's development as a composer. The source from which he now drew his inspiration had become a never-ending source. As recently as in the 1970s, Alfred Brendel noted a lack of respect for Schubert's instrumental works. The general improvement of this is probably not least a result of his efforts. Perhaps it is also a result of a widespread desire for a return to music which reflects time and touches the soul, rather than the ever-present and undesired functional noise that it is today.