Classical Music | Piano Music

Franz Liszt

Standchen-Leise flehen meine Lieder, from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang Play Play

Piano

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.

In the fourth song of the set, "Ständchen" ("Serenade") by Ludwig Rellstab, the poet sings to his beloved, imploring her to come to him. Schubert's setting is intensely passionate and lyrical. The piano provides a mostly simple chordal accompaniment appropriate for a serenade, interjecting brief melodic ideas only when the voice pauses. During the last stanza in which the poet is most fervent in his attempts to persuade his lover and speaks of his own anxiety, the accompaniment becomes more active and imitates the voice. The vocal line, one of Schubert's most recognizable melodies, begins in the key of D minor. It later moves to D major, portraying the poet's hopes of being united with his beloved. However, the song's conclusion comes in D minor as the poet faces the reality of his loneliness. "Ständchen" is also one of the many songs that Franz Liszt transcribed for piano solo. Joseph DuBose