I was listening to Liszt when I discovered Hieronymus Bosch’s joyously inventive work this week, and reflected that the two seemed to share a certain wildness in aesthetic. However, there was one particular Bosch which seemed born to harmonise with Schubert's last sonata- specifically, that sublime pianissimo passage in the development of Mov.1, where the high frail melody contrasts with the first-ominous, then-warm bass trill. I don't consider myself to have synaesthesia, but I'd always associated the D960 with luminous shades of blue, which seemed perfectly captured by the Ascent of Paradise, as painted by Bosch. The blue "tunnel," through which the blessed souls wing their way, also neatly captures the sonata's idea of a journey towards the transcendental; for me, in the first movement, the journey culminates at the trill we hear at 0:29 in the below video, from which point time stands still.
Here's the painting, combined with the relevant extract from the sonata, played beautifully by Stephen Kovacevich.
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