SCHUBERT: ROSAMUNDE, D. 797

Rasmunde was a play with incidental singing and ballet mixed in. The play is lost, but we have this wonderful music. In its time the play was panned and the music praised. So, when you hear that this is the complete Rosamunde, I guess you can say we have the complete worthwhile parts. But you won't get any kind of story from what is here without reading the notes. In fact, the order of the pieces is altered for listening purposes. However, you could program your CD player to give it to you in dramatic sequence if that interests you.

The performance provided here is especially good and tracks 7 & 8 are my favorites on the disk. All the music is very good Schubert which is better than all but the very greatest music. Yes, Schubert is one of my favorite composers, but I am willing to point out his faults. However, when you consider his output and that he died at 31 years old, what we have from him is completely awe inspiring.

Rosamunde is one of the treasures he left us and I am grateful for this recording.--Craig Matteson Listen to samples

SCHUBERT: SYMPONY No 5, 6, 8 & 9 / ROSAMUNDE OVERTURE

EMI's new "Gemini" series is a breath of fresh air amidst all the smoke being put forth recently by the major classical labels. While Sony is deleting most of their classical budget discs, BMG is raising theirs to mid-price and UNI is convinced that 3CDs are always better than one, EMI decides to start a two-fer line that sells for significantly less than the competition, not to mention their own "Double Forte" series. It might not be as cheap as the old "Seraphim" series, but they could certainly be charging more for quality recordings such as these.

Herbert von Karajan's Schubert Symphony Cycle, made between 1975-78 for EMI with the Berlin Philharmonic, has been available previously on CD in the "Karajan Edition." However, those discs, released as four single titles with two Symphonies each, were twice the price of these new reissues. These performances of Symphonies 5, 6, 8 & 9 plus the Rosamunde Overture are certainly solid, but Karajan was never celebrated as a conductor of Schubert. One wonders if that is why DG had a young Lorin Maazel record the Schubert Symphonies with the Berliners instead of Herbie at the dawn of the stereo age, and that ultimately EMI had him record this Cycle because it was something he hadn't yet done for DG. In any event, I would certainly recommend the Bohm boxed set on DG or the Kertesz on London/Decca (see my review of the latter) ahead of these performances. But considering how cheap these two double discs are, maybe picking up an extra Schubert Cycle is worth it after all.--Micheal B. Richman Listen to samples

SCHUBERT: SYMPHONY No. 9 "THE GREAT"; ROSAMUNDE OVERTURE

The Barbirolli Society and Dutton Laboratories have reissued more brilliant sessions by the great British conductor Sir John Barbirolli. The first CD of this two-disc set features his 1953 recording of Schubert's 9th Symphony, 1948 Rosamunde Overture, and 1949 Mendelssohn Octet-Scherzo, all originally made for HMV. The second disc is all Brahms -- a 1952 HMV recording of the 3rd Symphony and the Double Concerto, featuring cellist Andre Navarra and violinist Alfred Campoli (!), from 1959 and originally made for Pye. All selections are mono except for the Brahms Double which is in stereo. Like other releases in this series, the performances have been digitally remastered from the original masters superbly by Michael J. Dutton. My reason for withholding a fifth star is that these are not Barbirolli's definitive stereo accounts of the two Symphonies -- those were available in currently out-of-print EMI Seraphim titles, though the Schubert 9th has recently been reissued by B.S./Dutton (see my review). With that being said, Barbirolli Society CDs are certainly a treat, but they don't stay around very long. Buy this JB title while you can!--Michael B. Richman Listen to sample

FRANZ SCHUBERT : OVERTURE 'ROSAMUNDE'

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)


When Schubert was pired, music took shape in his mind faster than his pen could move across paper. And in his incidental music to the Romantic drama Rosamunde, Princess of Cypress he was often inspired. He began composing on November 30, 1823, and finished on December 18, 1823, two days before th premiere. Not much time was left to rehearse either the music or the production's two ballets, and no time at all to compose an overture. In fact Schubert never did compose an overture. In fact Schubert never did compose an overture to Rosamunde. Instead he used an overture already composed for an earlier work.

One of Schubert's close friends, the famous Romantic painter Moritz von Schwind, describing the Rosamunde premiere to a mutual friend, wrote that the Overture was taken from Schubert's opera, Alfonso and Estrella. But Schwind's comments on the music do not fit the Overture to Alfonso and Estrella. On the other hand, they do fit Schubert's Overture to an earlier "magic play" (Zauberstuck) called The Magic Harp (Die Zauberharte). Add to this the fact that the Zauberharte Overture was published (in a four-hand piano version) shortly before Schubert's death as the Overture to Rosamunde, and the conclusion seems almost inescapable. It is the Zauberharte Overture that is customarily performed today under the title of Overture to Rosamunde.

The drama Rosamunde. Princess of Cypress survived for exactly two performances. Even though Schubert's music had been singled out by the Viennese press for high praise, it fell into obscurity along with the play and was not brought to light again in its entirety until 1867, when Sir George Grove, of dictionary fame, and his friend Sir Artur Sullivan made a joint expedition to Vienna for the prupose of unearthing Schubert's still-neglected manuscripts. The two men were successful beyond their wildest dreams, and in the booty they brought back to London were parts of Schubert's Rosamunde music, which was performed, in London, for the first time since the Vienese production of the drama.

The orchestra for the Rosamunde (Zauberharte) Overture calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 cllarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and the standard choir or strings. -- Edward Downes