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Track(s) taken from CDJ33028

Willkommen und Abschied, D767 Second version

First line:
Es schlug mein Herz, geschwind zu Pferde!
composer
December 1822; published in July 1826 by A W Pennauer as Op 56 No 1
author of text

John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: March 1996
St Paul's Church, New Southgate, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown & Martin Compton
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: June 1997
Total duration: 3 minutes 45 seconds
 

Reviews

‘There are unknown treasures here. Anyone who hasn't invested in this vast enterprise might well begin with this volume’ (Classic CD)

‘Irresistible listening’ (Financial Times)
Like An die Entfernte, this song is a wonderful compromise between the German Lied style and the powerful world of opera. The Italianate character of much of the vocal line (particularly at the peroration) is no coincidence – the poet Craigher de Jachelutta probably provided Schubert with an Italian singing translation of the poem which was published (as Felice Arrivo e Congedo) in the first edition. This was part of a plan to broaden the appeal of the Schubert Lieder into other countries – not particularly successful at the time, but an indication that by 1826 the composer was moved to try to do something about his career, then thoroughly in the doldrums from a business point of view. The similarity to Erlkönig is also evident. That song remained the great hit of Schubert’s career, and its publication in 1821 prompted a great amount of interest in a ‘repeat’ performance. Of course Goethe’s horse-ride to Sesenheim to see his lover Friederike von Brion (the inspiration for Willkommen und Abschied) is nowhere near as dramatic as the father’s midnight dash through the forest to save the life of his child; but the equestrian element of both songs lends an excitement and tension to the accompaniment. In this respect only Auf der Bruck is comparable.

In fact, unlike Erlkönig, it is the velocity and excitement of the ride which denies this song a full measure of expressivity as far as doing justice to the poem is concerned. The text is full of interesting imagery, the detailed depiction of which is sometimes passed over in the interests of the excitement of the whole. The chugging triplets in the piano (easy to play in comparison to Erlkönig) propel the music forward in capital fashion, but the singer has to work at his diction, and retain an element of longing and reverie for the tenderness of the third verse which must not sound rushed. As in An die Entfernte, the song is a clever marriage of aria and recitative. The last one-and-a-half lines of the third verse (‘Ihr Götter! Ich hofft’ es, ich verdient’ es nicht!’) give rise to an extraordinary passage where the singer is stopped in his tracks by the thought of his undeserved good luck in love. Only Schubert could have managed to throw this quixotic wild card into such an aria and successfully recover his momentum for the rousing finale. The form of the song is also a subtle variant of strophic technique. There is nothing obviously strophic about the work except that a certain key phrase (we hear it first at ‘Der Abend wiegte schon die Erde’) is repeated throughout (at ‘In meinen Adern welches Feuer!’ and again at ‘In deinen Küssen welche Wonne!’). Such phrases, planted into the song structure like building struts, give to the work an impression of structural unity.

Schubert originally wrote this song in the key of D major, but it was transposed down to C for the first edition – the tonality of this performance. The difference between the versions is not great; the word ‘doch’ twelve bars before the end is doubled in length in the second version, and it is only in this version that the section beginning at ‘Ich hofft’ es’ is marked ‘Langsamer’. The D major version can be heard on Volume 6.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1997

Other albums featuring this work

Schubert: The Complete Songs
CDS44201/4040CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price) — Download only
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