Favorite Schubert: Maurizio Pollini playing the Wanderer Fantasy.

Bob Christiansen


Oddly, in my experience the best introduction to Schubert "lieder" (that oh-so-German art form) was through performances by the elegant French baritone Gerard Souzay who, with his pianist Dalton Baldwin, made this repertoire vivid and communicative ... accros national boundaries, across language barriers, across time. Find Souzay ... on the Philips label ... for a revelation.

Michael Barone


Any time a classical piece is used in a movie or on TV, it seems to get a new lease on life. (Think of what "2001: A Space Odyssey" did for Strauss and "Also sprach Zarathustra.") Some years back, there was a French film called "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs." It had one very striking scene where a character listened to the "Hungarian Melody" by Schubert. Now the movie was not a big hit, and the piece is not one of Schubert's most famous. But every now and then, I still get phone calls from people who ask, "Are you familiar with Schubert's ... 'Hungarian Melody?'" I always wonder if they saw the movie too.

Rex Levang


A recollection: soprano Elly Ameling with accompanist Rudolf Jansen performing a recital of song settings by Schubert of Goethe, Heine and Schiller. About halfway through the concert, she was singing a trilogy of songs. She ended the first one looking up into the air, her hand pointing the way to some distant and ethereal place. The audience began to applaud, but Ameling didn't move, change her position or even flinch. She held her pose, the audience settled down and she continued to sing. Normally, I'm not one for song recitals, but this one convinced me that there was something special about Schubert.

Silvester Vicic


I like singing Schubert. As a composer, he's a singer's dream.

Louise Lantz


In our top-ten, best-of, "Mad About" age, I was surprised that I couldn't find a "Mad About Schubert" CD collection. No "Flipped over Franz" or "Silly for Schubert" CDs listed. That's odd, because I have a theory, and my guess is you don't need a genius to prove it. We all fall for a good tune. Personally, I'm a sucker for a great melody; a hummable song. (With all due respect to Sondheim, I could never whistle.) Schubert certainly wrote the melodies you can whistle. Off the top of my head, I can probably whistle (OK, hum) tunes from four or five of his symphonies, a handful of chamber pieces, and several of his songs. (Think Ave Maria!!) And even when the words aren't quite top-notch, as in one of my favorite songs "An die Musik," the tune elevates the text. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Elly Ameling (Philips 420 870-2) or Bryn Terfel (DG 445 294-2) bring it and other songs to life as well or better than anybody.

With all of those great tunes, though, there's never a sense of deliberate crowd pleasing or manipulation. History tells us that Schubert came about his melodic gifts naturally, honestly, and quickly! Whether it's "Ave Maria" in church at Christmastime, the snippet of ballet music from Rosamunde that I used to hear as a theme for "Afternoon Symphony" on the radio, or any of the bouncy finales to his early symphonies, there are those good and honest tunes - the ones that lodge in the memory, that you just can't get out of your head … and you don't mind it in the least. The symphonies are filled with good tunes. Try Istvan Kertesz with the Vienna Philharmonic (London 430 773-2) from the gossamer early ones through the turmoil of the Unfinished and the Ninth.

One of my first and most indelible concert memories is of Alfred Brendel, awkwardly ambling out to a piano in a junior high auditorium and the intense tunes came spilling out as he played the "Wanderer Fantasy." I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but I got the sense of wandering around in the woods with an old friend, and listening to him talk, passionately but honestly about what was going on in his life, what he was feeling at that moment.

Tom Crann

Die Forelle, The Trout - Reflection by Stephanie Wendt
MPR staff on Schubert - Others on Schubert