Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 11/21/2006, uploaded on 01/27/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The songs of Schwanengesang, published in two books by Tobias Haslinger after Schubert's death, contain his final Lieder. Unlike Schubert's other song cycles, the songs of Schwanengesang are not all by the same poet, but instead Schubert draws upon the works of Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl. Since Schubert left no indication of his intentions for these songs, it is unclear whether he intended the songs to be collected as a cycle at all, even though in the autograph manuscript the first thirteen songs were copied at a single sitting on consecutive manuscript pages. The origin of the songs as a cycle originated with the publisher, Tobias Haslinger, who gave the collection its title. Today, Haslinger's ordering of the songs of Schwanengesang is regarded as the definitive version of the work.

Seventh in the cycle of twelve songs, Ständchen: Leise flehen meine Lieder (Serenade: My Songs Beckon Softly) is based on a poem by Ludwig Rellstab. The poet, here, sings passionately to his beloved, imploring her to join him and hoping that the “betrayer” has not turned her heart from him. Schubert’s setting of the song is relatively simple with a broken chord accompaniment befitting of the serenade with only faint, momentary echoes of the vocal melody. Liszt, for the most part, remains true to Schubert’s original design. The melody is at first presented in the treble, but on its second repetition is placed an octave lower and given the special indication “quasi Violoncello.” On the third and final appearance of the melody, Liszt gives an ingenious variation of it. It is returned to its original pitch in the treble, but appears in canon an octave higher. Yet, this is not for the mere technical effect. The result is one of Liszt’s remarkable coloristic effects—that of an eerie and distant echo. After this imaginative take on Schubert’s melody, Liszt returns to the provided coda and only in the final bars does he return to embellishing the original music, though still concludes in the same detached uneasiness.      Joseph DuBose

      Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.