Schubert: Piano Works For Four Hands, Vol. 2

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Cat No: 8553441

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099444125

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SCHUBERT

Description
It was conventional in Schubert's day to start musical education as a chorister, and young Franz had the honour of being a member of the Imperial Chapel in Vienna. He was born in 1797, the son of a schoolmaster, and his membership of the choir gave him access to the highest education. He decided to forego that in order to follow in his father's footsteps as a schoolteacher, but soon found he did not enjoy that profession, and spent as much time as he could studying composition with Salieri.He was a prolific writer, composing no less than 144 songs in his eighteenth year. Though for two years he did teach music in Hungary, no one quite knows how he financially survived for the rest of his life. By 1821 he had written over 600 works including the first six symphonies. Most of it was unperformed and unpublished, friends buying him the manuscript paper he could not afford.His crazy workload, little food, but revelry with friends until the early hours of the morning, helped a venereal disease to break his health, and he died in 1828 aged 31, with over 900 works to his credit. They included nine symphonies, operas, over 600 songs, sacred and secular choral works, a violin concerto, and a large number of chamber and instrumental works.In 1818 Schubert was given the post of tutor to the two daughters of Count Esterh_zy, the sixteen-year-old, Marie, and her twelve-year-old sister, Caroline. It was for them that Schubert returned to his music for four hands, though, as with much of his output, we can only guess its date of origin. Certainly among the finest of the period was the Three Military Marches, where he creates a good feeling of strength and vivacity without writing music of technical difficulty. They were marches for the concert-hall rather than the military parade, the first becoming one of his most frequently played works in its many guises, simply known as Marche Militaire.We do, however have a date for the Overture, which was completed in October 1819, and appears never to have had an orchestral garb in mind. After a slow introduction, and with a central section of considerable tenderness, it concludes in a happy and lively coda.The Four Polonaises may well come from this same era. Each one is written in three sections, with two fast segments framing a central Trio. Again these are happy and pleasant compositions suitable for his skilled pupils, but omitting the extreme difficulties of his great solo piano works. Equally we date the two works coupled under D. 968 as from 1818 or 1819, and could well have been little works to please his pupil's parents. The Allegro takes its flavour from the military marches, while the Andante has a lyrical aspect that we would associate with his songs.The Fantasy predates this time, and is accurately dated as 1811. Its title is unusual in that the work is very formal, and at times is almost an exercise in the use of counterpoint. It does not feature among his finest compositions, though the slow section, which
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