This is the bicentennial of Franz Schubert's birth.  This item is for
discussing Schubert and his music.

13 responses total.

Okay, well, everybody must know the "Death and the Maiden" quartet, the "Great"
C major symphony, Die Schöne Müllerin, etc.  Has anyone been following the
Hyperion complete lieder collection?  Very exciting.  I picked up the Ian
Bostridge CD of Die Schöne Müllerin and think it's worth it just for the
booklet inside.  They've also released a nifty sampler CD.  There's a Schubert
website at 

http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/ramorris/f1frame.htm

if you're interested.

Oppsie.  It's "Die Schone Mullerin."

You have umlauts on your keyboard?

Doesn't everyone?

Doesn't everyone?

Oh, man.  I feel like maybe I should jump in here
and say what little I know about Schubert (liked drinking,
women, and composing) but that won't be very interesting
for anyone to read.  I really don't know his music well
at all and wouldn't be able to recognize anything but
the old war horses without a program.

So I'm going to instead hope Michael trucks ahead with this
item and does what he has done so well before - teases me into
seeking out something different in the classical section.

The Hyperion edition of the songs (lieder, excuse me) is getting rave
reviews, Mary.  The Ian Bostridge recording of Die Schone Mullerin
in particular is being singled out.  I don't know what you mean by
"war horses" -- the "dein ist mein hertz" song from "the lovely miller
maid" might fall in that category, but I don't think the whole cycle
does.  You might give it a try.  (Bet you won't be able to get the
tunes out of your head, though.)

Oh!  And I have a transcription for full string orchestra of the "Death
and the Maiden" quartet, made by another Viennese songster and
symphonist of note named Gustav Mahler.  Perhaps you've heard of him?
It's available on CD and I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Funny how I can see some text when I'm calling the web site from AOL
that I can't see when I call in direct, like this.  Hmmm...

Re Schubert, what I love about him is the way he -- personally --
crossed from the classical period into the romantic period.
Compare the "Trout" quintet with the "Death and the Maiden"
quartet, or the 5th symphony with the 8th or 9th.  The 5th is
wonderful, wonderful music, as are the 8th and 9th.  (He wrote
the 5th when he was 19.  He wrote "Erlkonig," which I once
described as the official start of the Romatic period, when he
was *18*.  He made Mozart look like a late-bloomer.)  There is
a cult of the Schubert lieder, I've found.  They take the songs
very seriously indeed, and have many fascinating as well as
absurd things to say about them.  

HOla, Hello I know yet that the date it's up bat this comments are dated 1997
It isn't anybody how likes classical music now in 2003? No existe en este
lugar comun alguien , unas ola personal adem'as de nsoosotros aq quien le
interese la musica clasica, est` tan podrido este mundo ahora en el aqo 2003?
Hay queda la inquietud. Hasta la vista

There are some of us quietly watching this conference.

I guess no one had anything new to say about Schubert. 

Sad but true.

Not noticing that the comments were 6 years old (though I should have, 
from the remark about the bicentennial), I was going to say that I 
thought Mahler's orchestration of the "Death and the Maiden" quartet is 
just splendid, casting the most dramatic of all string quartets into a 
larger light, like a highly magnified wogglebug.  (The various 
orchestrations of Shostakovich quartets do not work for me: 
Shostakovich's chamber music is too purely intimate in a way that this 
Schubert quartet, at least, isn't.)

We tend to think of Schubert as a lyrical composer, but he could be 
fiercely dramatic, and it provides some of his best moments.  Think of 
the Unfinished Symphony, especially the second movement.  Among the 
songs, think of "Erlkonig".

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