Favourite Schubert song?

[JFLL]

Just one. With performers if desired.

(And perhaps we'd better exclude Ave Maria, An die Musik and Erlkönig -- this isn't Play Schubert for Me)

I'll kick off with Der Winterabend, D 938, with Matthias Goerne and Elisabeth Leonskaja. All glorious 7 minutes of it.

[Norfolk Born]

Der Leiermann - Harry Plunket Green. He seems to live the song rather than just sing it.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just one. With performers if desired.

(And perhaps we'd better exclude Ave Maria, An die Musik and Erlkönig -- this isn't Play Schubert for Me)

I'll kick off with Der Winterabend, D 938, with Matthias Goerne and Elisabeth Leonskaja. All glorious 7 minutes of it.

Great thread. Mine is Nacht und Traume, with Ann Murray and Graham Johnson. The silence out of which the song comes and into which it fades are such an important part of it. Few songs manage to twitch the curtain between our phenomenal world and the noumenon which we cannot know, or the conscious and unconscious, in quite the same way. Those first words "Heil'ge Nacht" need to steal out of the silence. Some singers hit them head on, spoiling the effect.

I've heard many performances on R3, and my other favourite recorded version is Flott with, er, Graham Johnson - she takes it slightly faster.

[gradus]

Auf dem Wasser zu singen just sticks in the mind, largely because of the piano accompaniment.

[DublinJimbo]

Du bist die Ruh D.776
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore (mid to late '60s recording, from the 18-CD survey)

F-D's phrasing and breath control are exquisite. I know no other recording on which they are matched — and the song is a gem.

[vinteuil]

my other favourite recorded version is Flott with, er, Graham Johnson - she takes it slightly faster.

... must've been unnerving for the accompanist if Felicity Lott was singing it faster than he was playing it

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just one. With performers if desired.

Too many too good to be my "favourite". (Ditto performers, but as no one else has mentioned Janet Baker, Gundula Janowitz or [duck, Bbm!] Kathleen Ferrier, I will! )

[Panjandrum]

no one else has mentioned Janet Baker, Gundula Janowitz or [duck, Bbm!] Kathleen Ferrier, I will! )

To say nothing of Fassbaender, searingly (is there any other adjective to describe her?) intense in Schwanengesang.

[amateur51]

To say nothing of Fassbaender, searingly (is there any other adjective to describe her?) intense in Schwanengesang.

I don't know BF in Schwanengesang but her Winterreise is outstanding.

[aeolium]

Auf dem Strom, D943 (Schade, Pyatt, Johnson). The combination of voice, piano and horn creates a wonderful effect, the horn at times seeming to come from a great distance. Was Schubert the last composer to use this combination until Britten? (almost certainly not, but I can't recall any)

[Richard Tarleton]

... must've been unnerving for the accompanist if Felicity Lott was singing it faster than he was playing it

Should have said "they". I'm sure they agreed it in advance.

[Pianorak]

Should have said "they". I'm sure they agreed it in advance.

The German "flott" covers a multitude of sins, such as fast-paced, jauntily, quick, perky, snappy, dashing, smartly, raffish - you name it, flott will cover it!

[gurnemanz]

The German "flott" covers a multitude of sins, such as fast-paced, jauntily, quick, perky, snappy, dashing, smartly, raffish - you name it, flott will cover it!

I immediately think of my wife who is German and is rather attached to an ancient kitchen device, called a "Flotte Lotte" which she inherited from her mother. It mashes vegetables to pulp with ruthless Teutonic efficiency.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flotte_Lotte.

(Just contributing this random piece of information in order to avoid having to pick a favourite Schubert song)

[kernelbogey]

Flotte Lotte would have been a good Schubert Lied, with rippling vegetable-mashing piano accompaniment. And perhaps a chorus: Gemuese, Gemuese....

[Pianorak]

Flotte Lotte would have been a good Schubert Lied

Thomas Mann might have had a bestseller on his hands if he had given his "Lotte in Weimar" a racier title such as "Flotte Lotte". Or maybe not - a bit too much like what R3 is doing now?