Schubertreise XXXV

Conor Biggs, bass
Michel Stas, piano

Das Geheimnis (first setting), D 250 
Das Geheimnis, (second setting), D 793 
Auflösung, D 807 
Gondelfahrer, D 808 
Des Sängers Habe, D 832 
Totengräbers Heimweh, D 869 
Fülle der Liebe, D 854 
Wiedersehn, D 855 
Lied der Delphine, D 857/I 
Lied des Florio, D 857/II

The first setting of Das Geheimnis is all about walking on tiptoe, the newly-discovered joy of the lovers’ secret. This strophic setting is sadly little known. The second setting, written eight years later, conveys a sense of subdued ecstasy and is infinitely richer, eclipsing the first setting. 

Auflösung is like no other Schubert song: Wagnerian in concept, the first verse sounding the chord of G major for nine bars (one thinks of the opening of ‘The Ring’).  The bravura and arrogance of the poet’s words ‘Dissolve, world, and never more disturb the sweet ethereal choirs’ more than meet their match in the hands of Schubert. 

In Gondelfahrer we encounter yet again Schubert’s genius for translating sensuous impressions (here the tolling of the bell of Saint Mark’s). Des Sängers Habe is Schubert’s tribute to the saving grace of his art, a mixture of exhilaration, defiance, despair and reconciliation. 

Shakespeare’s anonymous gravedigger in Hamlet, who reminisces about Yorick, finds his spiritual child in the fine Totengräbers Heimweh, while Fülle der Liebe, demonstrating a state of barely controlled excitement, is the last of the settings of Friedrich von Schlegel. The almost Mozartean Wiedersehn follows: the poem, dated 1791, must have seen very distant to the Schubert of 1825. Schubert is increasingly turning his back on older poets, turning instead to Ernst Schulze and of course Wilhelm Müller. Finally, two songs based on a theatrical work, Lacrimas, by one Christian Wilhelm von Schütz.  Delphine has all the allure of a symphonic idea, hardly surprising since Schubert was working on the “Great” symphony at the time. Florio, with its strumming accompaniment, is instantly appealing.

Presented by NCH