Cast
Lotte Lehmann — Lyric soprano
Ernő Balogh — Pianist
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Program notes
Schubert's reputation suffered from the fact that he did things differently and when a work of art is new and different, and the world cannot categorise or label it, it often takes a long time for the world to understand and accept what that work has to offer. In some ways, these things haunt Schubert's reputation even today.
"We think that we can reach one another but, in reality, all that we can do is to approach and pass each other by. What torment for those who realise this."
Franz Schubert
To complicate the picture still further, Schubert lived, and in some ways his music continues to live, under the shadow of Beethoven. Schubert himself asked the question "Wer vermag nach Beethoven noch etwas zu machen?" (Who would dare to do anything after Beethoven?). The answer, of course, was Franz Peter Schubert and, most notably, in the music that he wrote after the death of his God, Ludvig van Beethoven.