Schwanengesang

Schubert’s Schwanengesang appeared in print early in 1829, mere months after his shockingly early death the previous November. The title, Swansong in English, correctly identifies its 14 songs as the composer’s last, composed during his final year, but gives the misleading impression that they form a unified cycle, which is nevertheless how they are most often performed. In fact there are two groups of songs: seven settings of Ludwig Rellstab, six of Heinrich Heine, and—as a postscript—Schubert’s very last song, which sets Johann Seidl’s “Die Taubenpost” (“Pigeon Post”). Although there is no continuous narrative as in Schubert’s two earlier cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, the composer’s sincerity and sensitivity are evident throughout, along with his unparalleled gift for creating a piano accompaniment that not only supports the singer but deftly illustrates and comments upon the poetic moment: the babbling brook of the opening “Liebesbotschaft” (“Message of love”), for instance, or the dragging bass sonorities of “Der Atlas”. The Rellstab settings ponder themes of nature and of love won and lost, while the Heine group turns to deeper considerations of loss and longing, regret and bitterness. Each of the songs by the 31-year-old, desperately ill composer is a miniature masterpiece; nevertheless, highlights of the cycle include the enchanting (and much-arranged) “Ständchen” (“Serenade”), the ominous “Der Doppelgänger” (“The Double”) and, of course, the wistful optimism of the concluding “Die Taubenpost”.