Hyperion Records

Only two days after composing the first version of this poem, Schubert returned to the text with new ideas. Perhaps what he had taken to be a paean of joy was in fact meant to be a prayer? As in the two Fischerlied settings the second version is not just a reworking of similar material, it is a totally different song. The singer of this spacious aubade is no cheery energetic youth but rather a priest of Apollo, or one of Norma's druid colleagues spinning a vocal line of Bellini-like suppleness. C major is Schubert's key of clear morning skies; Morgengruss from Die schöne Müllerin had its beginnings here. We choose verses 1, 5 and 6 as being appropriate to this music, and so that the whole of Körner's poem is heard between the two versions.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1989