Schubert’s Serenade
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was a highly prolific writer of songs, having composed around 144 of them at the time of his death. Indeed, it is said that he even wrote one of them on the tablecloth at a Viennese restaurant whilst he was dining with friends.
One of the most popular has always been Ständchen (‘serenade’), being a setting of verses by Ludwig Rellstab which Schubert wrote near the end of his life and which remained unpublished at the time of his death. It was one of a number of songs his publisher collected to form the cycle Schwänengesang (‘swansongs’). The first verse runs in prose translation:
My singing softly flies through the night to you.
In that still copse, Love, come down to me.
There has often been a similarity drawn between singing and solo instrumental playing and, in this lovely piece, the solo trombone should sound like one of the great Lieder singers, such as the baritone, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose recordings of this song serve as a model to all.