CHAN 10042 Front.qxd 3/5/07 11:05 am Page 1 CHAN 10042 CHANDOS CLASSICS SCHUBERT Schwanengesang BORTNYANSKY Sacred Concertos Volume Three Benjamin Luxon baritone Russian State Symphonic Cappella Valeri Polyansky David Willison piano CHAN 10042 BOOK.qxd 3/5/07 11:08 am Page 2 Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Schwanengesang, D 957 1 Liebesbotschaft 2:48 2 Kriegers Ahnung 4:47 3 Frühlingssehnsucht 2:48 4 Ständchen 3:25 5 Aufenthalt 2:52 6 In der Ferne 5:34 7 Abschied 4:24 8 Der Atlas 1:50 9 Detail of painting by Kupelweiser/Lebrecht of painting by Detail Collection Ihr Bild 2:57 10 Das Fischermädchen 1:54 11 Die Stadt 2:54 12 Am Meer 4:37 13 Der Doppelgänger 4:38 14 Die Taubenpost 3:43 Franz Schubert TT 49:17 Benjamin Luxon baritone David Willison piano 3 CHAN 10042 BOOK.qxd 3/5/07 11:08 am Page 4 devoting himself to writing music, poetry, It has long been debated whether Schubert Schubert: Schwanengesang opera libretti and criticism. In the last field really intended the Rellstab and Heine he later earned notoriety for a tirade against groups to go together. In the last months of Chopin, whose Études, Rellstab warned his life Schubert tried (unsuccessfully) to sell Benjamin Britten used to consider that hostility from orchestras who considered it readers, ‘should be practised only with a the Heine group separately for publication, the last eighteen months of Schubert’s life, ‘tuneless’ and unplayable). surgeon standing by’. In earlier years but this may have been something of a in 1827–28, just after the death of It was after completing Winterreise in 1827 Beethoven had taken an interest in his sacrifice for financial reasons, for in Beethoven, were the most richly productive that Schubert had the idea of composing two poetry, and various accounts, though possibly Schubert’s own manuscript the first of the period of our whole European musical shorter song collections, to poems by Ludwig apocryphal, suggest that Schubert was passed Heine settings (‘Der Atlas’) follows on, history. That short space of time saw the Rellstab and Heinrich Heine, as a musical the poems either by Beethoven himself or, within the same page gathering, directly from completion, by a composer aged twenty-nine offering to his friends. These became the after Beethoven’s death, by his disciple Anton ‘Abschied’, the last of the Rellstab settings. to thirty-one, of the ‘Great’ Symphony in major part of Schwanengesang. That Schindler. The manuscript also shows that it was C major, the C major String Quintet, collection, still unpublished at Schubert’s As a poet Rellstab was no Heine, but Schubert who ordered the Heine settings as three epic piano sonatas, the E flat major death in November 1828, was printed in Schwanengesang shows fascinatingly how they occur here (differently from Heine’s Piano Trio, hosts of smaller pieces and 1829 by the publisher Haslinger, who Schubert’s musical response could make own order of the poems in his collection individual songs, plus two major song supplied the title. Obviously, Schwanengesang masterpieces regardless of the original poetry. Die Heimkehr): because some pages feature collections, Winterreise (Winter Journey) and is not a song cycle in the sense of Die schöne Rellstab’s longer verses receive considerable the end of one song and the beginning of the what came to be known as Schwanengesang Müllerin or Winterreise, as it does not form a space to expand in the music, whereas Heine’s next, it is not possible – as has sometimes (Swan Song). In the best tradition of miracles, comparable programmatic sequence. In compressed poems are matched by a musical been suggested – that they could have been this incredible creative deluge passed almost addition, Haslinger threw in for good sparseness that gives them a sometimes reordered after Schubert’s death. unnoticed by a Viennese public more measure the final song, ‘Die Taubenpost’ devastating impact, especially when the In fact Schubert seems to have ordered the concerned with Spontini and Spohr; although (the last of all Schubert’s songs, to words by impact is concentrated in the final lines or collection with consistent care, for he Schubert’s songs were more widely recognised Johann Seidl), which Schubert had never bars, as in ‘Die Stadt’, ‘Der Doppelgänger’ or deliberately omitted from it two other Rellstab and published during his lifetime, the last intended for the collection. Yet there is a ‘Ihr Bild’. The chromatic twists completing settings sketched earlier in 1828, ‘Herbst’ and three piano sonatas had to wait for coherence to Schwanengesang, as can be seen ‘Der Atlas’, ‘Ihr Bild’ and ‘Der Doppelgänger’, ‘Lebensmut’. In sum, the sequence as it stands publication until ten years after Schubert’s (and heard) in the grouping of the songs. or the harmonically unresolved ending of today seems to be as Schubert intended it, death, while the ‘Great’ C major Symphony The circumstances of the Rellstab settings ‘Die Stadt’, are just a few of the sudden except for the final ‘Die Taubenpost’. Now an lay even longer before being brought to light are worth relating, as far as they are known. modulations which, ignoring harmonic accepted part of the collection, this song does by Schumann and performed under Ludwig Rellstab was a man of wide interests, niceties, must have left even Schubert’s make a plausible finish, relaxing the atmosphere Mendelssohn’s baton (sometimes greeted with who taught history and mathematics before devoted friends bewildered at times. after the brooding intensity of the Heine 4 5 CHAN 10042 BOOK.qxd 3/5/07 11:08 am Page 6 settings – just as some of Schubert’s USA and Europe. Early in his career he was instrumental finales do. closely associated with the English Opera There are several reasons why Schubert may Group with which he sang the title role in have wanted exactly the contrast provided by Britten’s Owen Wingrave in 1970. He made the Rellstab and Heine groups (a relationship his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera blunted in the first edition, which stupidly in the title role of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno divided Schwanengesang into two parts before, d’Ulisse in patria, and at The Royal Opera, Curzon Fritz instead of after, ‘Abschied’). For one thing, the Covent Garden in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s more expansive Rellstab settings give the Taverner in 1972, returning many times listener time to assimilate Schubert’s intensity thereafter, notably as Eugene Onegin. of expression before the abrupt condensation of the Heine settings. For another, many of The pianist David Willison enjoys a diverse Schubert’s instrumental works of the time musical career as accompanist to some of the contain the same juxtapositions of lyrical world’s finest vocal and instrumental soloists. expansiveness with sudden brutal drama. Can For many years a professor at the Royal this be, consciously or not, a reflection of the Academy of Music, he has given concerts with relative lyricism of Schubert’s earlier years, musicians such as Sir James Galway, Dame contrasted with the sudden urgency, the Felicity Lott, Della Jones, Judith Howarth and shadow of illness and death, that haunted him Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Recent work from 1824 onwards? includes recitals in France, Denmark and the UK with the tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson, © Roy Howat baritone Christopher Maltman and French cellist Dominique de Williencourt. For thirty- The baritone Benjamin Luxon CBE was born five years he partnered the entire recital, in Cornwall and studied at the Guildhall recording and broadcasting activities of School of Music and Drama. Since winning a Benjamin Luxon CBE, appearing with him in prize in the international competition in more than 700 performances, from London’s David Willison and Benjamin Luxon Munich he has firmly established himself as an Royal Festival Hall to New York’s Carnegie opera, concert and Lieder singer and has Hall. He has been artistic director of the Rye appeared with all the major orchestras in the Festival for the past ten years. 6 7 CHAN 10042 BOOK.qxd 3/5/07 11:08 am Page 8 Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Rellstab- Schlußversen erzielt, wie in den letzten Schubert: Schwanengesang Vertonungen, soweit bekannt, ist der Takten von “Die Stadt”, besonderen Erwähnung wert. Ludwig “Der Doppelgänger” oder “Ihr Bild”. Rellstab war ein vielseitig interessierter Die chromatischen Windungen am Benjamin Britten pflegte zu behaupten, die aufführte (manchmal mit widerstrebenden Künstler, der Geschichte und Mathematik Schluß von “Der Atlas”, “Ihr Bild” und letzten achtzehn Monate in Schuberts Leben Orchestern, die das Werk für “unmelodisch” unterrichtete, bevor er sich der Komposition “Der Doppelgänger” sowie das harmonisch kurz nach Beethovens Tod seien die vielleicht und unspielbar hielten). und der Erstellung von Lyrik, Opernlibretti unaufgelöste Ende von “Die Stadt” sind nur schöpferischste Periode der ganzen Nach Fertigstellung der Winterreise im Jahre und kritischen Artikeln widmete. Als Kritiker einige Beispiele für die ohne Rücksicht auf europäischen Musikgeschichte gewesen. 1827 nahm Schubert die Vertonung von zwei machte er sich vor allem durch seine Tirade harmonische Konventionen plötzlich 1827/28 schuf der Komponist – zwischen kürzeren Gedichtzyklen mit Texten von gegen Chopin einen Namen, in der er dem einbrechenden Modulationen, die selbst bei seinem neunundzwanzigsten und Ludwig Rellstab bzw. Heinrich Heine in Leser riet, dessen Etüden nur in Anwesenheit Schuberts ergebenen Freunden einige einunddreißigsten Lebensjahr – seine Angriff, die er seinen Freunden zum Geschenk eines Arztes zu üben. Schon Beethoven hatte Verwirrung hervorgerufen haben dürften. “Große” C-Dur-Sinfonie, das Streichquintett machen wollte. Die bei Schuberts Tod im Interesse an Rellstabs Gedichten gezeigt, und Es ist umstritten, ob Schubert die in C-Dur, drei gewaltige Klaviersonaten, das November 1828 noch unveröffentlichten einer möglicherweise apokryphen Rellstab- und die Heine-Gedichte wirklich in Klaviertrio in Es-Dur, zahlreiche kleinere Lieder fanden Eingang in den Zyklus, den der Überlieferung zufolge erhielt Schubert die einem Zyklus zusammenstellen wollte.