Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in ...(+)
Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, a String Quintet,
the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabras, the
incidental music to the play Rosamunde, and the song
cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. He was
remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his
short career. His compositional style progressed
rapidly throughout his short life. The largest number
of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano
(roughly 630). Schubert also composed a considerable
number of secular works for two or more voices, namely
part songs, choruses and cantatas. He completed eight
orchestral overtures and seven complete symphonies, in
addition to fragments of six others. While he composed
no concertos, he did write three concertante works for
violin and orchestra. Schubert wrote a large body of
music for solo piano, including eleven incontrovertibly
completed sonatas and at least eleven more in varying
states of completion, numerous miscellaneous works and
many short dances, in addition to producing a large set
of works for piano four hands. He also wrote over fifty
chamber works, including some fragmentary works.
Schubert's sacred output includes seven masses, one
oratorio and one requiem, among other mass movements
and numerous smaller compositions. He completed only
eleven of his twenty stage works.
There are a number of hunters’ songs to be rifled
through in the Schubert canon. The most famous of them
is Der Jäger at the heart of Die schöne Müllerin.
Then there are the two versions of Jägers Abendlied
(the Goethe poem), and two different songs, both from
1817, with the title of Der Alpenjäger, the first with
a poem by Mayrhofer (Volume 34) and the second to a
Schiller poem (Volume 1). Lied des gefangenen Jägers
is a Walter Scott setting from 1825. There are also
various guest appearances by hunters in the Ossian
settings. Of all these songs, Schober’s Jägers
Liebeslied has received the worst press. Capell
dismisses it as ‘insignificant’ – a dangerous
verdict on any of the songs of Schubert’s maturity,
particularly one that was written at exactly the same
time as the first part of Winterreise. What is
significant is that of all the manuscripts of
Schubert’s songs left at the Schobers’ on the
composer’s death, this was the only one which the
poet chose to retain in his possession. The fact that
the song was very popular with singers at one time
explains its inclusion in Volume 1 of the Peters
Edition, but of all the works in that collection it is
the least performed today.
This is one of those songs which needs sympathetic
performance. Like Romanze des Richard Löwenherz it can
be made to appear as banal as the performer believes it
to be, or as touching. There has always been a separate
class of Schubert songs the personal significance of
which outweighs their importance in terms of absolute
music – the Schober setting discussed in Volume 35,
Pilgerweise, is also one of these, and Jägers
Liebeslied too belongs in this category. If the music
seems not to be entirely successfully addressed to
posterity, we should feel ourselves to be privileged
eavesdroppers at a moment of musical tenderness that
clearly meant much at the time. And there are certain
turns of phrase in the music, gracefully fitting the
words of different verses with the practised skill of
this master of strophic songs, which will give the true
Schubertian moments of gentle delight.
Source: Hyperion
(https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W1720_GBA
JY0003602)
Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the "Jägers Liebeslied"
(Hunter's love song D.909 Op. 96 No. 2) for Flute &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION