This jaunty little song fragment is an idealisation of happy family life; it has a real Biedermeier quality to it. Fortunately the child is far too impish and roguish for the picture to be sickly sweet. The accompaniment stays in the treble clef for both staves (as if the bass clef is reserved for grown-ups and broken voices) with a range as short as the child itself. The 6/8 time signature and the air of innocent modesty are reminiscent of Mozart's Sehnsucht nach dem Frühlinge K596, the tune of which figures in the final movement of Mozart's last piano concerto, also in B flat. A curious feature is the cheekily perverse use of accents on the third note of the accompanying triplets. This gives an impression of a game where the lop-sided child saunters along the road, one foot on the pavement, the other off. The first twenty-four bars are genuine Schubert, the last four are by Reinhard Van Hoorickx.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1994