# Schubert's Schwanengesang, D.957



## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

I just heard this piece on the radio today. 
It was this version: Serenade (Staendchen) D.957 #4	Franz Schubert	Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Daniil Trifonov, piano	DG 4797570

Looking at the back catalog (CD), I find a predominance of piano/vocal (as opposed to solo piano, or violin/piano, cello/piano, or just piano).

Given that this piece was among his last works, I assume Schubert didn't leave many notes as to instrumentation or interpretation?

In any case, my faves are cello/piano ...
or solo piano ... as in this example ...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm pretty sure that Schubert composed Staendchen explicitly for voice and piano (the 'cycle' Schwanengesang was not his decision, but was created by a publisher after Schubert's death). Of course, the melody of this particular Lied is so great that many trabscriptions have been made.


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

I can only second what Art Rock had to say. 'Schwanengesang' was assembled by Schubert's brother and publisher from some of the songs he wrote in 1828. Liszt made quite a few transcriptions of Schubert songs and Staendchen was orchestrated by Offenbach. I didn't know violin, cello etc versions existed.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

The OP should check out the Song Cycle. Even though it wasn’t intended as a cycle, it works pretty well. The Heine songs are particularly powerful, especially Der Atlas and Doppelgänger. This is a cycle that sits well with male and female voices.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

It's not clear that Schwanengesang was not at some point intended by Schubert as a cycle. From Wikipedia:

In the original manuscript in Schubert's hand, the first 13 songs were copied in a single sitting, on consecutive manuscript pages, and in the standard performance order. All the song titles are by Schubert, as Heine did not give names to the poems. (Reed 259) Tobias Haslinger, Schubert's publisher, collected the songs together as a cycle, most possibly for financial reasons, as Die schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise collections sold very well. Die Taubenpost is considered to be Schubert's last Lied


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I've always instinctively treated _Schwanengesang_ as two separate cycles gathered together, with Seidl's _Die Taubenpost_ serving as a kind of stand-alone epilogue.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> It's not clear that Schwanengesang was not at some point intended by Schubert as a cycle. From Wikipedia:
> 
> In the original manuscript in Schubert's hand, the first 13 songs were copied in a single sitting, on consecutive manuscript pages, and in the standard performance order. All the song titles are by Schubert, as Heine did not give names to the poems. (Reed 259) Tobias Haslinger, Schubert's publisher, collected the songs together as a cycle, most possibly for financial reasons, as Die schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise collections sold very well. Die Taubenpost is considered to be Schubert's last Lied


Heine isn't the only poet in the cycle.


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

I like the Franz Liszt transcription for solo piano more than the voice/piano. And, over piano/voice, I prefer the cello/piano (dunno whose responsible for that ... but well done!) .

I'm not a Lieder fan for sure. But, then again, the opera style ain't my thing, either. 

Anyway, if you've found a good performance or recording of the Schwanengesang, please share.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

13hm13 said:


> Anyway, if you've found a good performance or recording of the Schwanengesang, please share.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

13hm13 said:


> Anyway, if you've found a good performance or recording of the Schwanengesang, please share.


I've found several, but the reality is that virtually every male singer whose career includes Lieder has recorded it.

Hans Hotter:









Bryn Terfel:









One of Terfel's best records, recorded quite early in his career.

Matthew Rose:









Hakan Hagegard:









I'd start with Terfel or Hotter. Although many tenors (and a few sopranos and mezzos) have recorded it, and quite well, I think that Schwanengesang is better suited to baritones and bass-baritones.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Fischer-Dieskau is my personal favourite interpreter of pretty well anyone's lieder and in particular Schubert. His Schwanengesang with Gerald Moore is glorious.


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

No vocals on this ... nice ....





I wouldn't mind a transcription with, say, piano + cor anglais.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Barbebleu said:


> Fischer-Dieskau is my personal favourite interpreter of pretty well anyone's lieder and in particular Schubert. His Schwanengesang with Gerald Moore is glorious.


After listening to the Liszt transcription, I listened again to Fischer-Dieskau and Moore:






It confirms my impression that the Liszt transcription, though lovely and seductive with its "silber tönen", is more decorative and less powerful and passionate than Schubert's song.

From my own experience, you can't become an enthusiastic "Lieder fan" until you make some acquaintance with the German language - its rhythm and its syntax. Some of the English translations of a Lied lack the vitality of the original, sometimes fine, poem which inspired Schubert.


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

Mathias Goerne and Christoph Eschenbach add another Rellstab setting from 1828, Herbst D945, and couple the songs with Schubert's last piano sonata, D960 in B flat major. Afine album.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

jenspen said:


> After listening to the Liszt transcription, I listened again to Fischer-Dieskau and Moore
> 
> It confirms my impression that the Liszt transcription, though lovely and seductive with its "silber tönen", is more decorative and less powerful and passionate than Schubert's song.


I think you are correct and would suggest that these can almost be considered as two distinct pieces of music. There are a number of pieces where Liszt is a creator of music starting from Schubert's ideas (or Beethoven or ... etc) rather than just an arranger of a piece of music for a piano.


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Matthias Goerne performed a version of Staendchen orchestrated by Alexander Schmalcz. It was performed as the encore of a concert with the Finnish Radio Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden.

Go to 30:41. (I loved the entire concert but if you are limited for time and like DRAMATIC go to approx. 24:30.)


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## Guest (Mar 23, 2018)

This great song cycle was completed in the year of Schubert's death, 1828. That fabulously creative period just before his demise revealed a composer who had matured beyond anything he'd ever attempted before. Reaching a whole never level of expressiveness and creativity at such a time of illness beggars the imagination. This period included Symphony No. 9, String Quintet D956 (that is phenomenal), the last 3 piano sonatas (in a league of their own) and the Mass No. 6. It has been described as arguably the greatest year of composition in classical music. 

Has anybody read the autobiography of Gerald Moore, "Am I Too Loud?"?


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

I settled on this CD for now:










Schubert - Sonata 'Arpeggione', Sonatina, lieder Transcriptions - Anne Gastinel

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):
Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor D 821
Ständchen - Serenade - Lied from Schwanengesang D 957 n°4
An Die Musik - Lied Op. 88 n° 4 D 547
Sonatine for Violin and Piano in D majour Op. 137 n° 1 D 384 (transcr. for cello and piano)
Litanei aus des Fest Aller Seelen - Lied D 343
Die Forelle - Lied D 550
Der Doppelgänger - Lied from Schwanengesang D 957
Auf dem Wasser zu singen - Lied D 774
Täuschung - Lied from Winterreise Op. 89 n° 19 D 911
Der Müller und der Bach - Lied from Die schöne Müllerin Op. 25 n° 19 D 795

Anne Gastinel - cello
Claire Désert - piano


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

If you aren't already a subscriber, you should subscribe to OperaLiederGreats' YouTube Channel. S/he is extraordinarily generous and has uploaded an almost uncountable number of recordings. The following is the Schwanengesang performed by Matthias Goerne.






And, the following are some other pieces by Schubert:


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