33. The only document that unequivocally places the two composers together may be a forgery: an 1822 letter written by the critic Johann Friedrich Rochlitz says that Schubert took him to an inn where Beethoven was eating (SDB, 228); published in Leipzig AMZ 30 (2 January 1828), 2; FSD, No. 552b; SMF, 303–4; and Thayer’s Life of Beethoven, 800–801.
34. Rellstab’s poems had recently been published when Schubert set them.
35. SMF, 303; Rellstab, Aus meinem Leben (Berlin, 1861), 244–45.
36. Rufus Hallmark, “Schubert’s ‘Auf dem Strom,’” in Schubert Studies: Problems of Style and Chronology, ed. Eva Badura-Skoda and Peter Branscombe (Cambridge, 1982), 44.
37. SMF, 192; Rita Steblin, “Schubert und der Maler Josef Teltscher,” Schubert durch die Brille 11 (1993): 119–32.
38. Solomon observes that Anselm had not discussed this event in his 1854 reminiscence of Schubert (“Schubert and Beethoven,” 122). As I have explored in an earlier article, there are good reasons to be skeptical about the Hüttenbrenners’ later accounts, although it does seem that Anselm was in the room when Beethoven died. See Gibbs, “Performances of Grief,” 232–35.
39. The D-Minor Quartet, “Death and the Maiden” (D810), written the same month as the letter to Kupelwieser, was published in 1831; the third quartet, the G Major (D887), was composed in 1826 and published in 1851.
40. John M. Gingerich suggests that what Schubert meant was that chamber music would make a name for him and thus open doors to orchestral performances in “Unfinished Considerations,” 106.
41. Some of Beethoven’s admirers wrote an open letter urging him to give the concert in Vienna. Beth Shamgar observes that many of these people were connected to Schubert as publishers, literary collaborators, performers, or patrons in “Three Missing Months in Schubert’s Biography: A Further Consideration of Beethoven’s Influence on Schubert,” Musical Quarterly 73 (1989): 417–34. Josef Hüttenbrenner, Fritz von Hartmann, and Schuppanzigh were among those who performed at Beethoven’s concert, which Leopold von Sonnleithner helped to organize.
42. See John M. Gingerich, Schubert’s Beethoven Project (Cambridge, 2014).
43. Clemens Hellsberg, “Ignaz Schuppanzigh (Wien 1776–1830): Leben und Wirken” (PhD diss, University of Vienna, 1979).
44. See John M. Gingerich, “Ignaz Schuppanzigh and Beethoven’s Late Quartets,” Musical Quarterly 93 (2010): 450–513. Gingerich and I have identified the programs of almost all of Schuppanzigh’s quartet concerts from the 1820s. In his subscription series there were twenty-four concerts (four groups of six) during seasons 1823–24, 1824–25, 1826–27; and 18 (three groups of six) in 1825–26, 1827–28, 1828–29.
45. Vogl’s primary connection to Beethoven came from singing the role of Pizarro in the 1814 version of Fidelio, performances that deeply influenced the seventeen-year-old Schubert. The Credo of the Mass in G quotes the prisoners’ chorus from the opera. Vogl performed in Schubert’s Zwillingsbrüder, presented at the Kärntnertor Theater in June 1820.
46. See John M. Gingerich’s essay in this volume.
47. See Thayer’s Life of Beethoven, 586; Schubert’s comment came in a letter to Schott (SDB, 740).
48. Gingerich, Schubert’s Beethoven Project.
49. SDB, 694. Most published reviews of Schubert’s music that appeared during his lifetime are collected in FSD and many are translated in SDB. There is what seems to be an oblique reference to Schubert in a review of Beethoven’s Scottish folksongs—my thanks to Robin Wallace for this information.
50. Tobias Haslinger published the work as Trauerklänge bei Beethoven’s Grabe: Vierstimmiger Männer-Chor, nach einer Original-Melodie des Verewigten: Die Worte von Franz Grillparzer, in a supplement to the Allgemeiner musikalischer Anzeiger 12 (21 March 1829); see also Leipzig AMZ 30 (7 May 1828), 310–11.
51. SMF, 237. Bauernfeld’s earlier 1829 memorial article simply stated that Schubert had been “persuaded by his friends” to give the concert (SDB, 893).
52. See Otto Biba, “Franz Schubert in den musikalischen Abendunterhaltungen der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde,” in Schubert-Studien, 7–31; and “Franz Schubert und die Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien” in Schubert-Kongress Wien 1978: Bericht, ed. Otto Brusatti (Graz, 1979), 23–36.
53. Other events included a Gesellschaft-Concerts on 23 March, a concert by violinist Joseph Mayseder on 27 March, and one that day as well for violist Franz Xaver Glöggl, and a performance of Handel’s Jephtha on 28 March. See Chronologisches Verzeichniss aller auf den fünf Theatern Wien’s gegebenen Vorstellungen; vom ersten November 1827 bis letzten October 1828 (Vienna, 1829), 56–57.
54. Since the quartet had been published a few months earlier it is conceivable the work had already been performed somewhere. The lithographed program given in Figure 2, which to my knowledge has not been published previously, does not list the piece as “new,” which would have been expected. The other works on the concert were the Variations in G on a Theme from Judas Makkabäus, WoO 45; Der Wachtelschlag, WoO 129 (sung by Ludwig Tietze); and the Trio for Piano, Clarinet, and Cello, Op. 11.
55. When Schubert gave his concert he was living with Schober in the Tuchlauben next door to the Musikverein. At this time Schober was running a Lithographic Institute he had taken over from Count Pálffy and he no doubt produced the handsome program. The first version is reproduced in FSD, No. 599a and comes from a private collection; it was first published in Gerrit Waidelich, “Weitere Dokumente aus 1828 und 1833,” Schubert durch die Brille 19 (1997): 58. Figure 3 is another copy of this same version, although at some point someone changed the date to 26—there is also an annotation of “1828.” (When this was added is not known—it may have happened long after the event.) This copy of the program, now in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, has not been previously discussed in the Schubert literature; it was reproduced in a 1928 program re-creating the concert at the Gesellschaft itself and in Heinrich Werlé, Franz Schubert: Der Mensch und sein Werk (Berlin, 1941), 288. Yet another copy of this first version (also with the date hand-corrected) is better known, having been reproduced in Hilmar and Brusatti, Franz Schubert, 86, and elsewhere. There has been a great amount of confusion about the different versions of the program largely because of mistakes Deutsch made in his collection of documents, where he was misled by a review of the concert. Margret Jestremski attempted to sort out the issue and reproduces what she states are three versions of the program—in fact, two of them are of the same first printed version and differ only in the hand-written change of date in one of them. There is, actually, a second printed version of the program, which is referenced in the following endnote. The issue of the different versions of the program is complicated by the limited access to the original documents and that they are not usually reproduced as high-quality photographs; see Jestremski, “75 Jahre ‘Privatkonzert’—Eine längst fällige Korrektur,” Schubert durch die Brille 29 (2002): 115–24.
56. FSD, No. 603 on page 295 of the commentary volume, No. 2—the document was incorrectly numbered in volume 1 of FSD, adding further to the confusion about the different printed versions of the program. The commentary states that the printed date for the program on p. 295 is “21,” but “28” is clearly visible underneath the 26, as it also is in the third and final version of the program, noted by Deutsch (SDB, 754) and Waidelich (“Weitere Dokumente aus 1828 und 1833,” 63), but disputed as well by Jestremski (“75 Jahre ‘Privatkonzert,’” 120). This crucial printed alteration in the second version suggests the date of Schubert’s concert was moved before the change of programming (the Lied in No. 2c).
57. SDB, 755; FSD, No. 603a. This is the most often reproduced version in the standard Schubert literature, beginning as early as Richard Heuberger, Franz Schubert (Berlin, 1902), 85; Walter Dahms, Schubert (Berlin, 1912), 105; and the next year in Deutsch, Franz Schubert: Sein Leben in Bildern, 178.
58. See Schubert’s letter to Probst (SDB, 724f) and also Spaun’s reminiscence (SMF, 138).
59. SDB, 752; Schuppanzigh played a concert on 9 March featuring Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, and conducted a concert for Josef Böhm on 16 March. He had performed at Linke’s previous academies. Gingerich reasonably believes that had he not played on the 23rd that fact would have been mentioned in a review or on the program.
60. SDB, 751–52; and FSD, Nos. 600–602.
61. SDB, 751. Ernst Hilmar speculates that the announcement may have been written by Franz Xaver von Schlechta—see commentary for FSD, No. 600.
62. The title of the song was listed as Auf dem Strome, as it was in some of the concert announcements, but not in the manuscript or first publication.
63. Tietze had sung Beethoven’s Der Wachtelschlag on Linke’s concert and often performed Beethoven’s music.
64. Hallmark, “Schubert’s ‘Auf dem Strom,’” 25.
65. The program listed the work as Schlachtgesang, which is not the title of the manuscript or first publication.
66. SMF, 28. Bauernfeld mentions “a larger concert the following winter,” which suggests perhaps an orchestral concert—if we remember that Beethoven’s 1824 concert was Schubert’s model, then his 26 March concert, with its repertory of vocal and chamber music, was more modest (SDB, 893).
67. See Badura-Skoda, “The Chronology of Schubert’s Piano Trios,” 277–95.
68. Pirated editions of some Schubert Lieder had appeared abroad, as well as the Lied Widerschein in a Leipzig periodical. See Christopher H. Gibbs, “Einige Bemerkungen zur Veröffentlichung und zu den frühen Ausgaben von Schuberts Erlkönig,” Schubert durch die Brille 12 (1994): 33–48.
69. The piece was announced for sale in the Wiener-Zeitung on 11 December 1828 (FSD, No. 656a). The work sold very well in the decade that followed.
70. The opus numbers of both trios are apparently Schubert’s own—certainly the latter is. As the manuscript of Opus 99 is lost, there is no certainty about its dating, although most writers, beginning with Schumann, thought it the earlier of the two. The best arguments for the datings are in Badura-Skoda, “The Chronology of Schubert’s Piano Trios.”
71. The Neue Schubert-Ausgabe and Deutsch thematic catalogue make various mistakes concerning chronology and performances, which Eva Badura-Skoda has corrected; my findings concerning the E-flat Trio support her conclusions in “The Chronology of Schubert’s Piano Trios.”
72. See SDB, 724f and SMF, 138. Franz von Hartmann mentions this Schubertiade, where “we nearly all got tipsy” (SDB, 724–25).
73. Of Beethoven’s six published piano trios with opus numbers (not counting the string version of Opus 11), all but Op. 70, No. 1 (“Ghost”) are in four movements. The order of the slow movement and scherzo are switched in the “Archduke.”
74. Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn, Franz Schubert (Vienna, 1865), 552.
75. Sonnleithner had provided an earlier report to Ferdinand Luib for use in a biography the latter was intending to write but never completed, instead passing on his collected materials to Kreissle (SMF, 115).
76. Chronologisches Verzeichniss aller auf den fünf Theatern Wien’s gegebenen Vorstellungen; vom ersten November 1826 bis letzten October 1827 (Vienna, 1828), 66. Schubert scholarship has traditionally said that Berg arrived in October or November; at the concert he was identified as a student of Siboni.
77. Manfred Willford, “Das Urbild des Andante aus Schuberts Klaviertrio Es-Dur, D 929,” Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 33 (1978): 278.
78. Mirjams Siegesgesang shows Schubert’s interest in Handel and suggests another Beethoven connection as Schubert may have had access to the Arnold edition of the Baroque master’s works, which had been sent to Beethoven from England. As with the Rellstab poems Schubert received from Beethoven’s estate, the possibility of access to the Handel scores and perhaps to Beethoven’s sketches for a string quintet and symphony, raise intriguing issues I hope to explore at a later time. When Mirjams Siegesgesang was premiered two months after his death, a critic perceptively observed that Schubert was able to “fuse the powerful seriousness of Handel with the fiery passion of Beethoven.” Der Sammler 21 (21 February 1829), 92.
79. In late October 1827 Bauernfeld recorded in his diary that Grillparzer was helping him and Schubert with their opera project Der Graf von Gleichen by sending the libretto to the Königstadt Theater in Berlin (SDB, 682).
80. Grillparzer, Sämtliche Werke, 3:883ff. The service is described in the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 5 (9 January 1828), 16.
81. This is what Ferdinand claimed in a later autobiographical sketch; see Hilmar, “Ferdinand Schuberts Skizze zu einer Autobiographie,” 94; and Rita Steblin, “So wurde nach Ferd. Schubert’s Entwurfe Beethovens Grabmahl aufgeführt,” Wiener Beethoven-Gesellschaft Mitteilungsblatt 30 (1999): 9–16.
82. Fröhlich thought Schubert used the song in the Andante of the G-Major String Quartet, but that work was written well before Berg’s visit to Vienna. Schubert did not compose any quartets after his arrival.
83. See Otto Erich Deutsch, Schubert: Thematic Catalogue of All His Works (London, 1951), 453, where the information is credited to Gustav Nottebohm (see also SMF, 257). Contrary to some claims, Nottebohm did not mention Berg’s song in his Thematisches Verzeichniss der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Franz Schubert (Vienna, 1874).
84. 5 schwedische Original-Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Clavierbegltg componirt von Mr. B. Figure 4 is from the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (VI 29868; Q 21109); see also the entry in the elegant exhibition catalogue Schubert 200 Jahre, ed. Ilija Dürhammer and Gerrit Waidelich (Heidelberg, 1997), 162.
85. Deutsch wrote that “the dates of these two works [G-Major Quartet and E-flat Trio] seem to bear out Sonnleithner [that Schubert used Berg’s Swedish song in his trio]; but, to this day [1958], the theme has not been found. Anna [Fröhlich] may have been right [that the song was for a Quartet], if there is any truth in the story at all, inasmuch as she speaks of a song of Berg’s, while Sonnleithner had spoken of a Swedish folksong” (SMF, 257). See also Brown, “Schubert and Some Folksongs,” Music and Letters 53 (1972): 173–78. Although the song is not discussed in the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (1975; see note 107), by the time of the 1986 critical report by Hans-Günther Bauer and Arnold Feil, it was acknowledged.
86. Manfred Willfort, “Das Urbild des Andante,” 277–83.
87. See William Kinderman, “Wandering Archetypes in Schubert’s Instrumental Music,” 19th-Century Music 22 (1997): 208–22. Hugh Macdonald explored the “steady tread” found in many of Schubert’s compositions in “Schubert’s Pendulum,” in Beethoven’s Century: Essays on Composers and Themes (Rochester, 2008), 16–27. Basil Smallman observes that the slow movements of both of Schubert’s piano trios start “in an ‘unclassical’ manner with two preparatory bars before the entry of the main theme, and thereby set a precedent which was followed by numerous trio composers later in the nineteenth century.” Smallman, The Piano Trio: Its History, Technique, and Repertoire (Oxford, 1990), 75. The sketches show that Schubert originally had three introductory measures for the piano, the last one having even eighth notes without the dotted rhythm.
88. Richard N. Burke, “The Marche Funèbre from Beethoven to Mahler” (PhD diss., City University of New York, 1991). In relation to the Eroica see as well a discussion of earlier works by various composers in Constantin Floros, Beethoven’s Eroica, trans. Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch (Frankfurt, 2013), 58–63. Solomon discusses Beethoven’s many death pieces, including his first published composition, WoO 63, written at age eleven; Beethoven, rev. ed. (New York, 1998), 70–72.
89. Leopold von Sonnleithner’s obituary for Schubert explicitly calls it a funeral march (SDB, 873).
90. See Christopher H. Gibbs, “Beyond Song: Instrumental Transformations and Infiltrations from Schubert to Mahler,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Lied, ed. James Parsons (Cambridge, 2004), 223–42.
91. There were various connections among this group: Leopold von Sonnleithner, a law
yer, composed, performed, and conducted—he was related to Grillparzer, who also composed; both were closely associated with the Fröhlich sisters.
92. After studying the surviving sketches for the trio, Brian Newbould argued that Schubert added a passage to the second theme of the first movement (mm. 72–74; 81–83) derived from the song; see Schubert: The Music and the Man (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997), 372.
93. The Swedish in Willfort’s article differs in various respects from the manuscript in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, reproduced here for the first time. Although I have normalized the spelling, there is good reason to believe that the person who wrote the manuscript, perhaps Aloys Fuchs, did not know the language. My thanks to Thorvald Daggenhurst for assistance with the Swedish.
94. Mozart used a similar formal plan in his C-Major String Quintet (which Schubert studied in 1824) and that served Beethoven in the second movement of his Seventh Symphony, one of his most popular works. Schubert quoted the opening theme in the fifth variation of his Eight Variations on an Original Theme (D813). See Temperley, “Schubert and Beethoven’s Eight-Six Chord”; and Shamgar, “Three Missing Months in Schubert’s Biography.” Charles Fisk calls the form a “Schubertian specialty” and makes fascinating connections to Schubert’s allegorical tale “Mein Traum” in Returning Cycles: Contexts for the Interpretation of Schubert’s Impromptus and Last Sonatas (Berkeley, 2001), 278.
95. Hugh Macdonald, “Schubert’s Volcanic Temper,” The Musical Times 99 (1978): 949–52, an article elaborated on in “Schubert’s Pendulum,”16–27.
96. Maurice J. E. Brown, Essays on Schubert (New York, 1966), 17.
97. The only scholar yet to address this aspect of the sketches, so far as I am aware, is Anselm Gerhard, “Franz Schuberts Abschied von Beethoven? Zur ‘poetischen Idee’ des Es-Dur-Klaviertrios von 1827,” Schubert: Perspektiven 2/1 (2002): 1–21. A speculative reconstruction of the original conception of the movement based on the sketches has been most effectively recorded by the Abegg-Trio with spoken commentary written by Anselm Gerhard: Schuberts Werkstatt (Ein Text von Anselm Gerhard mit Musikbeispielen), TACET 996 (Stuttgart, 2001).
Franz Schubert and His World Page 37
