Favourite Schubert song?

[JFLL]

As things seem to have gone a bit quiet on this thread (Schubert fatigue?), I thought I'd just list what's been suggested so far Thanks everyone for some interesting posts. I haven't caught up with everything yet, but Der Leiermann for one with Plunket Green was an ear-opener for me.

- Der Winterabend, D 938, with Matthias Goerne and Elisabeth Leonskaja [JFLL]
- Der Leiermann (Winterreise) (Plunket Green) [Norfolk Born]
- Nacht und Träume, with Ann Murray or Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson. [Richard
Tarleton]
- Auf dem Wasser zu singen [gradus]
- Du bist die Ruh D 776: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore (mid to late '60s
recording, from the 18-CD survey) [DublinJimbo]
- Janet Baker, Gundula Janowitz or Kathleen Ferrier [ferney]
- Fassbaender in Schwanengesang. [Panjandrum]
- Fassbaender in Winterreise [amateur51]
- Auf dem Strom, D 943 (Schade, Pyatt, Johnson). [aeolium]
- Der Vollmond strahlt von Bergeshöh'n (from Rosamunde); Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
[roehre]
- Anything sung by Fritz Wünderlich or Elly Ameling [caliban]
- An die Musik [cloughie]
- Du bist die Ruh, Litanei [Oddball]
- The Shepherd on the Rock, with Isobel Baillie [Ferretfancy]
- Erlkönig [Eine Alpensinfonie]

(Sorry if I've inadvertently missed anyone.)

[Mary Chambers]

I'd love to take a bigger part in this thread, but it is impossible for me to name a favourite Schubert song. It would be difficult even to pick a dozen favourites. I do know that few of the ones I learnt in childhood, mostly in English, would be among them.

I loved the recklessness of the Pears/Britten performance of Auf der Bruck that John Tusa chose today. I'm not sure where/when it was recorded, but I imagine it was a concert, not a studio recording. I must have got it somewhere. It reminded me of their equally risk-taking versions of Auflösung, which would figure, I think, in my Top Ten Schubert songs, if I were to list them (which I'm not going to).

[gurnemanz]

I'd love to take a bigger part in this thread, but it is impossible for me to name a favourite Schubert song. It would be difficult even to pick a dozen favourites. I do know that few of the ones I learnt in childhood, mostly in English, would be among them.

I loved the recklessness of the Pears/Britten performance of Auf der Bruck that John Tusa chose today. I'm not sure where/when it was recorded, but I imagine it was a concert, not a studio recording. I must have got it somewhere. It reminded me of their equally risk-taking versions of Auflösung, which would figure, I think, in my Top Ten Schubert songs, if I were to list them (which I'm not going to).

I agree - too many masterpieces and too diverse but I might end up naming a classic minor gem like Karl Erb singing "Am See" which I find endlessly exquisite and entrancing. I could play it again and again without tiring of it.

[Panjandrum]

As things seem to have gone a bit quiet on this thread (Schubert fatigue?), I thought I'd just list what's been suggested so far Thanks everyone for some interesting posts. I haven't caught up with everything yet, but Der Leiermann for one with Plunket Green was an ear-opener for me.

- Der Winterabend, D 938, with Matthias Goerne and Elisabeth Leonskaja [JFLL]
- Der Leiermann (Winterreise) (Plunket Green) [Norfolk Born]
- Nacht und Träume, with Ann Murray or Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson. [Richard
Tarleton]
- Auf dem Wasser zu singen [gradus]
- Du bist die Ruh D 776: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore (mid to late '60s
recording, from the 18-CD survey) [DublinJimbo]
- Janet Baker, Gundula Janowitz or Kathleen Ferrier [ferney]
- Fassbaender in Schwanengesang. [Panjandrum]
- Fassbaender in Winterreise [amateur51]
- Auf dem Strom, D 943 (Schade, Pyatt, Johnson). [aeolium]
- Der Vollmond strahlt von Bergeshöh'n (from Rosamunde); Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
[roehre]
- Anything sung by Fritz Wünderlich or Elly Ameling [caliban]
- An die Musik [cloughie]
- Du bist die Ruh, Litanei [Oddball]
- The Shepherd on the Rock, with Isobel Baillie [Ferretfancy]
- Erlkönig [Eine Alpensinfonie]

(Sorry if I've inadvertently missed anyone.)

JFLL, sorry to confuse matters. My allusion to Fassbaender was more as a response to FHG's post on favourite Schubert singers. The power of her singing is overwhelming but I think I would top myself if that was all I could listen to.

If you really push me, for sheer unalloyed pleasure, I'll choose Ganymed as sung by the vocally hermaphroditic Dawn Upshaw on her cherishable record of Goethe inspired lieder.

[gurnemanz]

If you really push me, for sheer unalloyed pleasure, I'll choose Ganymed as sung by the vocally hermaphroditic Dawn Upshaw on her cherishable record of Goethe inspired lieder.

I also love those Dawn Upshaw's Goethe settings with Richard Goode, described by Alan Blyth in Gramophone as a "marriage made in heaven" (and also her show tunes album "I Wish It So"). My first impulse was to choose Ganymed but I simply couldn't pick a version. It might have been Christa Ludwig, Bernada Fink, Jessye Norman or Christine Schäfer + Quasthoff, Terfel, Souzay, and quite a few more.

It is one of the few songs covered twice on Graham Johnson's Hyperion Complete Lieder - Christine Schäfer and the recently deceased Elizabeth Connell.

[SFactor123]

My favorite Schubert songs are:
Lied aus der Ferne
Das Bild
Die Laube

[Karafan]

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)

Never thought about these in years - my Mum was Flemish and we had one too - she called it a "Passe-vite", though. Same fruit/vegetable-smashing characteristics though and it looked identical. Happy memories!

Oh, and getting back on topic for a change, Nacht und Träume narrowly squeaking Auf dem Wasser zu singen to the finish line. Both FiDi with Gerald "Am I too loud?" Moore. K.

[verismissimo]

But Erlkönig IS my favourite.

Me too. So many wonderful versions, but I have a particular penchant for Georges Thill as the Elf-King with EB Etcheverry (bass) and Claude Pascal (boy treble) from 1930. With orchestra! It's in Keith Hardwick's Schubert lieder box.

[verismissimo]

Me too. So many wonderful versions, but I have a particular penchant for Georges Thill as the Elf-King with EB Etcheverry (bass) and Claude Pascal (boy treble) from 1930. With orchestra! It's in Keith Hardwick's Schubert lieder box.

As proposed already by JFLL in message 23. Must pay attention.

[verismissimo]

Here is Thill etc in the Erlkonig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ60QF6map0

[Alie]

My favorite is overture to "Der Teufel als Hydraulicus".

[Stanfordian]

The Schubert song that I turn to most of all is the Auf dem Strom (On the River), D.943 a most beautiful late song from 1828 his final year. This substantial work for tenor, piano and French horn takes over nine minutes to perform. I love the performance Michael Schade (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano) and David Pyatt (horn) on Hyperion ‘The Schubert Edition’ vol. 37. It seems that the setting of a poem in five stanzas by Ludwig Rellstab contains a musical quotation from Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony.

[Mary Chambers]

My favorite is overture to "Der Teufel als Hydraulicus".

That's not a song, is it?

[Sir Velo]

That's not a song, is it?

Ah, but in the lingua franca of the ipod every piece of music, including symphonies, is a "song"!

[Mary Chambers]

Ah, but in the lingua franca of the ipod every piece of music, including symphonies, is a "song"!

You can't expect me to go along with that!