Raste, Krieger! Krieg ist aus was set by Schubert as
Ellens Gesang I D837; in Scott’s poem, Ellen beguiles the disguised King James V (1512–1542), who has stumbled across the hiding place of the Douglas clan, with this soothing song of a Scottish siren. Schubert’s rondo-Lied is a masterpiece of enchanting complexity; he was in his late twenties, after all, much older than the boy Mendelssohn, who treats a shortened version of the poem, minus its last four verses, as a simpler, sturdier, more folkloric affair.
from notes by Susan Youens © 2010
