Schubert

[poliphilo]

When I was a kid there was a radio show called From the Palm Court of the Grand Hotel; we used to listen to it in the car when we were driving home from visiting my grandparents- a journey that took an hour and a half.  It came on after Alastair Cook or before Alastair Cook- I forget which- and it effectively innoculated me against the syphilis and strudel school of Viennese music. (Want your kids to appreciate classical music? Play them the good stuff and nothing but.) It took me the best part of a lifetime to find out that Schubert- though he sounds superficially similar - is on a different plane from Lehar.

I'm listening to the Quintet in C Major, Op 163. A lorn maiden is calling out across the lake. The echoes answer. Only the echoes. Night is drawing in. The evening star comes out above the hills.

Comments

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Radio used to be so good.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The BBC still provides a pretty good service. Radio 3 is wall to wall classical music and Radio 4 has talks, discussions, drama, comedy- all to a very high standard.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And all without ads........

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's so important.

[matrixmann]

Well, just don't have radio hosts who can just play music, but who know about music.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I am sure I've mentioned before that I've been a big Schubert fan since my teens. Nothing teaches one how to sing solo like studying his lieder and listening to that quintet brings me back to my first passionate love affair with his chamber music.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The lieder are extraordinary- one great tune after another. He's like the Lennon and McCartney of the 19th century.