Franz Schubert Dressed to the Nines

This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from September 26, 2014. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast166

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Our Podcast Vault montage this week come from our “Dressed to the Nines” series of 2014, this time focused on Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony.

We’ve done quite a number of Schubert musings over the years, considering many aspects of his output – lieder, chamber music and his orchestral music. In fairness, his orchestral output can be characterized as modest when compared to other aspects of his production, but some of these works – this ninth symphony more specifically – is noteworthy dues to its clear “late romantic” atmosphere.

The other feature work on the montage – selections from his music for Rosamunde. By all accounts the 1820 production of the play Die Zauberharfe was a flop. There were, however, positive things to say about Schubert’s musical prowess; scholars have noted that Schubert takes many steps here towards his mature style, tempering both his lyrical genius and displaying masterful motivic development.

Schubert did not write an overture to his drama Rosamunde, which premiered on December 20, 1823, and he instead used a variety of overtures, including at one point, the Act I Overture from Die Zauberharfe. A more explicit connection between these two dramas comes from a piano forte duet, purportedly arranged by Schubert in 1825 with an explicit description “Overture to the play ‘Rosamunde’.” Whether the association is correct or not, the reception history of Die Zauberharfe has been unquestionably attached to the later production.

Our filler clip today, keeping with the “nines” is Schubert’s piano sonata no. 9, performed in its entirety here by Alfred Brendel.

I thin you will (still) love this music too.