Repertoire: Schubert's Last Two Years--An IDEAL List of Recordings 

2 years for all these masterpieces is indeed something of a creative miracle

One of the things I cherish about the F Minor Fantasie is that Schubert isn’t stingy with the beautiful melody of the first movement. When I first came to classical music from Pop as a boy, I was disappointed that the most gorgeous melodies might appear just once or twice or perhaps undergo some awful transformation in the interest of “development.” But here Schubert pours it out in abundance.

I got to know the second piano trio through the film Barry Lindon and for that I will be eternally grateful. Thank you Dave for inspiring us with your knowledge, enthousiasm and your sense of humour!

My introduction to Winterreise was a recital by a senior soprano voice student at St. Olaf College. I was a senior in high school who was no judge of German lieder - and who maybe thought the soprano was cute. Anyway, I fell in love with the performance. Alas, every recording recommended to me - including Peter Pears’s - sounded more like the story of an old man being put in a nursing home than the story of a youth who comes to give up on world. Then, a little more than twenty years after that recital, Onyx released a recording of Winterreise by Christine Schäfer and I fell in love with Winterreise all over again.

I think this "period of the guy's life" approach is good. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Cleveland Orchestra has planned Schubert Mass No.6 in their Carnegie Concert 1/18/2023

Of all composers, Schubert has probably been my most complicated/difficult/thought proving/challenging relationship with a composer…which undoubtedly says more about me, than his music…Over the last 40 years or so, I’ve come to see him as (kind of) the John Donne of composers. As a teenager, I played 4 of the impromptus, though never had any great love for them…they’re not especially challenging technically, but musically…wowzers!…when hearing Ushida, Horowitz, Zimmerman (add other greats) play them, my mind never ceases to be blown by the incredible depth of expression and beauty that these great pianists reveal. His piano works seem, to me, to require such a greater level of sensitivity and musical intelligence, than for other composers’ piano compositions. I’ve always wondered whether it’s something to do with the fact that he wasn’t such a great pianist…With Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt etc. if you learn the notes and negotiate the technical demands, the music reveals itself (sweeping statement I admit)… but the genius of Schubert’s piano music seem to require much more than that, to do them justice….I’m still not at all sure, after all these years, that I’m close to understanding him…but he’s definitely been the cause of more questions than all the others combined!

What Schubert did in his last years was indeed incredible. Stil in awe of all these works. The Pollini recordings of the last 3 three sonatas are still long-standing favourites. Now you have pointed out some new recordings I will certainly also listen to.

I love this music so much, it makes me cry! Schubert was a great modern, cosmopolitan (and still very Viennese) composer. He wrote music for the synagogue, he turned the Mahabharata from ancient India into an (unfinished) opera, and he worked on an opera about open marriage ("Der Graf von Gleichen") before he died. What great things we could have expected to come!

The 960 is the most beautiful sonata ever (in my opinion) Pollini is truly exceptional. I saw him play it in Carnegie Hall and it was like a movie when they fog everything except the main character. The hall literally seemed to disappear and there was only him and the piano.

I'd also recommend his Tantum Ergo D962, the final of his six settings of the text. At less than 4 min a fine candidate IMHO for a miniature masterpiece. Sawallisch's recording with Lucia Popp, Brigitte Fassbaender, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the Symphony Orchestra & Choir of the Bavarian Rundfunk is the recording I keep coming back to.

OOooooh!!!! I LOVE the Benita Valente Der Hirt auf dem Felsen!!!! It's AMAZING! There's a chromatic mediant modulation in the last part from B-flat to G and NO one sets it up like this recordings. The one addition I have to make to this list is the Abbado recording of the Mass in E-flat. Great soloists, Jerry Hadley in his prime is part of the et incarnatus est trio. Absolutely fantastic.

For Winterreise the recording that gets everything “right” for me is Fischer-Dieskau/Demus on DG. Fischer-Dieskau recorded it like 7? times but in that recording I don’t find him too mannered yet and he still has a pretty youthful sounding voice. I also really like Demus’s playing and the overall pace of the recording. Definitely on some days I think that recording is a bit too “safe,” and I want to experience something more individual like Pears/Britten or Schreier/Richter. You are very correct though in saying that there really isn’t a bad recording of it.

I'd love to see a video on Schubert's piano sonatas cycles.

I've always loved the Krips 9th, but it was my introduction to the work, and I wondered if sentimental attachment was the reason it seemed special to me. Glad to hear I'm not alone in admiring it!

Gee, thanks for mentioning the Josef Krips LSO Schubert 9th of all the myriad performances by the leading lights (conductors AND orchestras) of every epoch! I believe it was THIS recording that taught me to love the "Great" C-major symphony, which I until then viewed as somehow too "anspruchsvoll" compared to the other Schubertian works "from the heart" that I loved. The special way Krips had with this piece (and, btw, also other recordings of his that I have sampled - including Mozart's mature symphonies... what unusually wonderful, haunting dynamics in the 40th) made it sound/feel tender, emphatic, singing and still powerful at the same time, fully out of the shadow of Beethoven and veritably representing the bold next step in the development of symphony. I do not know how such a wonderful conductor could be almost reduced in mainstream memory to a Viennese waltz exponent (those he did fabulously, granted), but he had a truly distinctive "voice" even my amateur ears are able to single out. A truly great one! I might comment on the other choices (LOVE the "late" Schubert...), but Josef Krips is the man.

Love the Winterreise choice! Much though I love Hotter, DFD, and others, this is my #1. Bleakest version of Der Leiermann I've ever heard. And YES - Dudley Moore's "Little Miss Muffet" is hilarious and a deadly impression of Pears.

I love this idea of a chronological ideal. Much like Leif Ove Andsnes' recent Mozart project looking at particular years, which he recently took on the road in concert. What a creative output.

Dankeschön Herr Hurwitz, für diese großartige und vorzügliche Zusammenfassung der letzten 2Jahren Schuberts Musik. ♥️♥️♥️

Definitely love the Krips 9th - I have the Speakers Corner re-issue on LP record. The sonics are fabulous, and the performance is spectacular.

Just going through a Schubert piano sonata phase at the moment and didn't know the Pollini, so thanks for that. Otherwise so many of my favourites here. I still remember the shock of the F minor Fantasy, I literally couldn't believe that such a piece and such a performance could exist. So much to treasure.

Thank you, Dave. What a great rubric (last two years) for considering Schubert's work. Putting all these great works together is really awesome. Since I share Schubert's birthday, it's nice to hear a tribute to his significance!

It feels like a dream but I was present in Munich at Hercules Hall for a live performance in October, 2019 of Schubert's Mass No. 6 with the great Riccardo Muti conducting the SYMPHONIEORCHESTER DES BAYERISCHEN RUNDFUNKS, also known as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also included on the program was the Overture in C in the Italian Style, and the Unfinished Symphony. I mean, this was just an unbelievable performance and I feel so fortunate to have seen Maestro Muti, a grander living conducter I am not aware of (although he is actually quite short in stature).

This is a wonderful idea for a talk! I actually had the same inspiration back during the dark days of covid and compiled my own 'Late Schubert' list from my personal discs that I could stream at home. I have basically everything you mentioned and think they're great 'intro' pics which a listener can use to start their journey as individual pieces speak to them. I'll just add one brief personal comment-one of my all time favourite musical memories was getting last minute stage seating tickets to see the Berg Quartet do the Quintet (with Schiff?) in the late 1990's at the Royal Festival Hall in London... The impact of seeing and experiencing them from a few feet away was just mind-blowing... Chamber music indeed! But now that you've cracked this 'specific time in a composers life' door ajar, what comes next? Obviously, Mozart & Beethoven???

I was surprised that the late string quartets weren't included but they were written just before his last two years. I never knew that before. It's hard to imagine writing those pieces and then just stopping for two years and then dying.

You have a good singing voice and Schubert is my favorite composer. I wrote a position paper in my music class about Schubert.

Great idea, and wonderful insights that come with the chronological pairing. Would love to see what tweaks you may introduce to well-established time frames such as Stravinsky's periods.

A tremendously prolific genius, but we can never have too much Schubert, don't we? And this is a wonderful selection, as always. I've never heard of that recording of Schwanengesang though, I will definitely look into it. Also, I must say I'm not the biggest fan of Zimerman's Impromptus (and his Schubert generally). For sure it's extremely well executed and very polished (like everything Zimerman did), but somehow the result sounds too cold and calculated, which is exactly what you do NOT want in a piece called "Impromptu". Maybe it's just me but I find the cycles of Lupu, Perahia, Pires or even Endres much more rewarding. Take care!

Dave, thanks for doing the Schwanengesang from the Naxos Schubert songs. I have both the Hyperion and Naxos complete songs, and they make fine sets to compare different approaches to 700 (!) songs--Naxos young people negotiating hard vocal passages generally more easily, Hyperion's artists are tried and true. Both sets have lots of strong points. Extra musical issues: unfortunate that Naxos stopped including texts after volume 17. I find it tough to print the online words and include the resulting 8 1/2 by 11 papers onto the same shelf with the cds. Maybe the only way is to haul a laptop in front of you as you listen? Can't overlook the epicurean scholarly essays of Graham Johnson included on the Hyperion--that guy seems to know more about Schubert's music than Schubert did.

Great concept!

a great idea, I love it!

Thank you for this splendid list, David. Some old friends, and some new things to discover. Am looking forward to listening.

A great idea for a video Dave, and the sheer wonderful genius of Schubert shines through.👍

I love this ideal list idea!

Thanks Dave as always. Love the Zimmerman impromptus Great idea concentrating on specific periods in a composers lifetime

In July of 1827, with one year left, Schubert composed a masterpiece unfamiliar to most, a part song for alto solo, either SSAA chorus or TTBB, and piano -- Ständchen, D.920. Not related at all to the famous Ständchen young tenors cut their teeth on. Can sublime apply to yet another Schubert song? Seek it out.

Thanks for the list. I had never stopped to think that all of these works came from just a two-year span -- impressive indeed. I can't but agree with your choices of repertoire (though in many cases I know them from other recordings). The only exception is the Mass. I knew Schubert had written some masses, but I've never heard any of them. I'll have to remedy that soon.

For Schwanengesang, I absolutely love the version by the Romanian tenor Petre Munteanu, recorded in mono on Westminster probably back in the 1950s. A smallish voice, somewhat nasal, but with impeccable dynamics and phrasing.

For Winterreise I go to Hotter DGG 63. The famous 54 EMI finds him in better voice but the 63 is just shattering emotionally. As for Pears I recognize the artistry and intelligence but find it hard to get past the yowling tone

Volle is of course one of the leading Hans Sachses working today. It's nice to catch him before he was quite as famous as he is now.

I'm so excited that you choose Pears and Briten for "Die Winterreise". It's my favourite recording. True, Pears' voice may sound strange, but how he sings, how he speaks through his singing, is marvellous, and I know no other accompanist, who has this range of subtleties. In no other recording, I have so intensely the impression of singer and accompanist at eye level. The Dudley Moore was a solo, Moore singing and playing the piano - and it's so funny! I heard rumours that Pears liked it, but Britten, as you said, rather not... All other suggestions are perfect, as always with you, although in the Mass I prefer Sawallisch and in the 9th (although I do like Krips) Végh or Dohnanyi, but this is a matter of taste, I guess. Concerning the Mass: Schubert omitted IN ALL OF THEM in the Credo the "...et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam". Great, isn't it?

Have you done comparisons of Impromptu recordings? I've just tried listening to some Perahia versions, and couldn't wait to put Brendel back on. Side by side, it's chalk and cheese. I used to have Lupu's recordings - and certainly liked them 30 years ago, but can't remember how they'd stack up against Brendel.

As to winterreise, I've never heard a voice such as the one of Pregardien being able to give full account of the trip from loneliness and despair to happiness and relief which is winterreise.

My preferred Winterreises are Hans Hotter with Gerald Moore, mono 1954 but stereo doesn't matter for this intimate work and in the face of such dark, tragic insights into the piece; and Brigitte Fassbaender's scarifying uncompromising vision with no less than Aribert Reimann at the piano. I also value the Pears/Britten traversal. But Ward Marston issued a multi disc set of British tenors active before Pears proving both that the Brits had great tenors before Pears and that not a one of them sounded anything like Pears but were more robust, mellifluous, and tonally beautiful.

Hello David. I’m quite new to your channel and I just wanted to say it’s great. You explain things the way a newbie like me can understand. You also put that personality of yours on top of it all and that makes everything super-entertaining and fun. Love that you don’t talk about amps, vinyls, pressings, and that kind of nerdy stuff, it’s all about the music. If I could ask for something it could be the covers of the albums you are talking about being superimposed in the corner of the screen so it’s easier for us viewers to identify or grab a screenshot to later try to buy that cd. Thanks for your work. Love it. P.S. What about a comparison between the two mega Mozartesque boxes, the old Philips and the more recent Decca/Deutsche? They both command high prices today and could be really interesting.

Slavanska Wobbleskaya! I really must remember not to watch your videos while eating... Great talk here, as per usual, thank ya!

Dave was the Sonata in Bb the last piano work that Schubert wrote? What a way to go out! Its a desert island piece of mine although I despair of ever being able to play the last movement credibly

This is great Dave! I always get something out of your talks. I did not even know Schubert had written masses. I listened to a lot of Schubert in my university years and gave my daughter the advice to do the same. Schubert’s music is so very human. The productivity and quality of compositions in his last years of his life is nothing but astounding, almost like a mania. My favorite wintereise is by Gerard Souzay, 2nd is Thomas Quasthof. I find that Fischer-Dieskau style of singing is too much proclaiming.

Talking about Winterreise, a work I really love, I'd like to know what do you (David, but also the rest of music friends in this channel) think about Ian Bostridge's two recordings and his book on the song cycle.

I agree with others that this a great way to do surveys of composers. Stravinsky, Bach, and Haydn certainly have distinct "periods," but those of some (Milhaud, Korngold, Debussy) may be more subtle.

Technically, the title is "Winterreise," not "Die Winterreise." The original poems had the definite article, but Schubert dropped it.

911 is very fitting for the Winterreise,which is a real downer.

My first Winterreise was sung by Hermann Prey, and I'm sentimentally attached to it, but I do now prefer a tenor voice for these songs. And the Krips Great C Major was also my first, and remains my favorite. Great choices all, here. And they underline the tragedy of Schubert's early death...what might have been!

Love Schubert Lieder and I have tons but for me Der Hirt has always seemed to be a nuts and bolts piece devoid of inspiration. But thats just me!!

A bit shocked not to see Richter here! Good stuff nonetheless...

Poor Schubert lived for only 31 years. The mind boggles to imagine what he would have composed had he lived to Mozart's death age (35 years), or Chopin's (39 years) or Beethoven's (57 years). Could he have overtaken Beethoven as the greatest Viennese composer?

Alas - after once exposed to the Dudely spoof - I can barely listen to Britten-Pears in due seriousness anymore (though I still can't resist the strange spell of the unique Serande for tenor, horn and strings)

But szell or vegh for die Grosse?

Great idea! Will look forward to others! One genre of Schubert’s I don’t like at all, and that’s Lieder. Sorry folks.

Great, now go Wagner last years.