This Week in Classical Music: January 29, 2024. Schubert, Mendelssohn and more. What an exceptional week: Franz Schubert was born on January 31st of 1797, and February 3rd is the anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn, born 12 years later, in 1809. We just celebrated Mozart’s birthday; he died very young, at 35. Schubert’s life was even shorter: he was 31 when he passed away, and Mendelssohn – only 38. All three could’ve lived twice as long, and our culture would’ve been so much richer. Schubert is one of our perennial favorites (tastes and predilections change, Schubert stays) and we’ve written many entries about him (here and here, for example), including longer articles on his song cycles. There are hundreds of his pieces in our library – he remains one of the most often performed composers. His life was not eventful, his music was sublime, so here’s one of his songs: An die Musik, that is, To Music that Schubert composed in March of 1817 (he was twenty). Nothing can be simpler and more beautiful. We could not select a favorite recording, there are too many excellent ones, so we present three, all sung by the Germans: soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with the great pianist, Edwin Sicher, released in 1958 (here); the 1967 recording made by the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Roger Moore (here); and Fritz Wunderlich, an amazing tenor who also died at 35, accompanied by Hubert Giesen in a 1967 recording (here). You can decide for yourself which one you like better.
As for Mendelssohn, his most famous “songs” were not vocal butfor piano solo:Songs without Words. Still, he also composed “real” songs – not as many as Schubert, of course, who wrote about 600 – and some of them are wonderful.Here, for example, is Gruss (Greeting), a song from his op. 19a on a poem by Henrich Heine. It’s performed by the Irish tenor Robin Tritschler, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. When he wrote his songs op. 19a, Mendelssohn wasn’t much older than Schubert of An die Musik: he started the cycle at the age of 21.
Three Italian composers were also born this week: Alessandro Marcello, on February 1st of 1673, Luigi Dallapiccola, on February 3rd of 1904, and Luigi Nono, on January 29th of 1924. We’ve never written about Dallapiccola even though he was a very interesting composer; we’ll do it next week.
Also, yesterday was Arthur Rubinstein’s birthday (he was born in 1887, 137 years ago, but his ever-popular recordings evidence that he was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century). Two wonderful singers were also born this week, the Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi on February 1st of 1922, and the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling, one of the few non-Italians who could sing Italian operas as well as the best of the locals, on February 5th of 1911.
Schubery, Mendelssohn, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: January 29, 2024. Schubert, Mendelssohn and more. What an exceptional week: Franz Schubert was born on January 31st of 1797, and February 3rd is the
anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn, born 12 years later, in 1809. We just celebrated Mozart’s birthday; he died very young, at 35. Schubert’s life was even shorter: he was 31 when he passed away, and Mendelssohn – only 38. All three could’ve lived twice as long, and our culture would’ve been so much richer. Schubert is one of our perennial favorites (tastes and predilections change, Schubert stays) and we’ve written many entries about him (here and here, for example), including longer articles on his song cycles. There are hundreds of his pieces in our library – he remains one of the most often performed composers. His life was not eventful, his music was sublime, so here’s one of his songs: An die Musik, that is, To Music that Schubert composed in March of 1817 (he was twenty). Nothing can be simpler and more beautiful. We could not select a favorite recording, there are too many excellent ones, so we present three, all sung by the Germans: soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with the great pianist, Edwin Sicher, released in 1958 (here); the 1967 recording made by the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Roger Moore (here); and Fritz Wunderlich, an amazing tenor who also died at 35, accompanied by Hubert Giesen in a 1967 recording (here). You can decide for yourself which one you like better.
As for Mendelssohn, his most famous “songs” were not vocal butfor piano solo:Songs without Words. Still, he also composed “real” songs – not as many as Schubert, of course, who wrote about 600 – and some of them are wonderful. Here, for example, is Gruss (Greeting), a song from his op. 19a on a poem by Henrich Heine. It’s performed by the Irish tenor Robin Tritschler, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. When he wrote his songs op. 19a, Mendelssohn wasn’t much older than Schubert of An die Musik: he started the cycle at the age of 21.
Three Italian composers were also born this week: Alessandro Marcello, on February 1st of 1673, Luigi Dallapiccola, on February 3rd of 1904, and Luigi Nono, on January 29th of 1924. We’ve never written about Dallapiccola even though he was a very interesting composer; we’ll do it next week.
Also, yesterday was Arthur Rubinstein’s birthday (he was born in 1887, 137 years ago, but his ever-popular recordings evidence that he was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century). Two wonderful singers were also born this week, the Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi on February 1st of 1922, and the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling, one of the few non-Italians who could sing Italian operas as well as the best of the locals, on February 5th of 1911.