Schubert: Schwanengesang

Following their highly acclaimed Hugo Wolf lieder album, Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano have renewed their musical partnership with a recording of Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang, the third and last of the composer's song cycles, and literally his swan song, as he succumbed to illness shortly after its completion in 1828.

Schwanengesang ("Swan Song") was published posthumously. This title is attributed to Schubert's publisher, Haslinger, who, in his attempt to maximize profits after the composer's death, presented the work as the composer's final musical testament. In contrast with Schubert's previous song cycles, Die schone Mullerin and Winterreise, each composed to verses by a single poet, Schwanengesang draws on the work of two poets, Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860) and Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). In the original manuscript, all 13 songs (seven by Rellstab, six by Heine) were copied in Schubert's handwriting on consecutive manuscript pages and appear in the standard performance order. There are thematic connections between the Rellstab and Heine verses in terms of subject matter and musical motifs.