Johann Rudolf ZUMSTEEG (1760-1802) Duo for flute and cello • 1800
• by the pioneer of the German ballad

Zumsteeg’s importance lies in his development of the ballad, which exerted an unequivocal influence on young Franz Schubert, whose friend Josef von Spaun claimed he could “revel in these songs for days on end.” The German composer was also a solo cellist in the court orchestra in Stuttgart; while there, he wrote 10 cello concertos. The dramatist Friedrich Schiller was his close friend.

Franz LACHNER (1803–1890) Herbst “Autumn” Op. 30 No. 1 • published 1831
• a song for soprano by the South German composer who was Schubert’s most intimate friend in Vienna

It has been said that Lachner’s concert songs were his most distinctive works, as evident in Herbst with its ominous rustling in the piano and the lovely duet between the singer and obbligato cello.

Graham Johnson clarifies the relationship between Lachner and Schubert: “Lachner was the most successful composer of the Schubert circle, the only one of Schubert’s younger musical friends to become a musical celebrity outside Vienna. Moritz von Schwind, Lachner’s close friend as he had been Schubert’s, also made his career in Munich and became a celebrated visual artist. Although he is largely forgotten now (there are some signs of a revival) Lachner is the ‘missing’ link between Schubert and Schumann. He was born in Bavaria, and he was to return there as a favourite son; in the intervening years, one may call these his ‘Schubert period’, he lived in Vienna where he was a pupil of Sechter and the Abbé Stadler. He was a friend of the composer from about 1823, although we have no idea how he was introduced to the Schubert circle. In 1826 Lachner was appointed to a post at the Kärntnertor Theatre. He was with Schubert on many occasions in the last years of the composer’s life, but his memoirs of the time are not always reliable. He seems to have been more interested than many of his contemporaries in Schubert’s instrumental works. He claimed he often discussed his current compositions with Schubert, and that the two men showed their sketches to each other. This must have been something rare indeed: since his break with Mayrhofer, Schubert had no one among his friends, apart from Schober perhaps, with whom he might have had this kind of exchange. Lachner returned to Munich in 1836 and he played an increasingly dominant part in the musical life of that city. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Lachner’s return to Munich, Moritz von Schwind dedicated to him the ‘Lachner roll’, twelve-and-a-half metres of remarkably witty drawings on a roll of paper thirty-four centimetres high. This depicted Lachner’s career from its beginnings, and included several drawings of Schubert surrounded by his friends. Schwind’s own close position to Schubert, and the integrity of his memories, verifies the strength of the connection between Lachner and his immortal mentor.” After his return to Munich in 1836, he conducted the Vienna Court Opera and became an important figure in that city. The works of Beethoven he performed were considered exemplary.

Franz Anton SCHUBERT (1768–1827) Flute Quartet in G Major Op. 4 • n.d.
• by the Dresden double bass player, whose name is linked with an incident relating to Schubert’s song setting, Erlkönig

Unrelated to the famous Schubert, Franz Anton came from the German family of musicians active in Dresden in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is remembered mainly for his caustic remarks when by mistake a copy of Erlkönig, which became one of Schubert’s most celebrated songs, was sent to him by the publisher Breitkoft & Härtel. He huffily retorted in a letter of 18 April 1817 that the “cantata” was not his composition but that he would retain the copy “so as to learn if possible who has so impertinently sent you that sort of rubbish and also to discover the fellow who has thus misused my name.” He and his music are virtually forgotten today, whereas the beloved Erlkönig will live on to eternity. Franz Anton was also a friend of Franz von Schober, who had a very close and special relationship with Schubert.

SCHUBERT Mignon Lieder • 1815–1821
• transcribed in 1995 by Aribert Reimann for soprano and string quartet

Reimann, the German composer and arranger, has selected from Schubert’s numerous settings 3 of the lesser-known poignant songs—Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, Heiß mich nicht reden, and So laßt mich scheinen bis ich werde—and has transcribed and linked them brilliantly “as a continuous, organically connected mini-cantata for voice and string quartet, which follows Mignon through her longing for an absent lover, passionate secrecy, and anticipation of release in death” (Andrea Budgey). The lyrics concern Harfenspieler or Harper (the mad father) and his delicate daughter, Mignon. The poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are from his second novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship.

Born into a musical family in Berlin in 1936, Reimann became a répétiteur at the Deustche Oper Berlin and a distinguished accompanist of lieder, most notably in performances with the great German lyric baritone, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, for whom many of his original works were written, including the opera King Lear.

SCHUBERT Piano Trio in Bb Major Op. 99 • 1827
• upon hearing this celestial, ebullient significant work, Schumann declared, “One glance at Schubert’s Bb Trio—and the troubles of human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.”