Van Swieten Society #5

Schubert is synonymous with lyricism. Some of his nearly 600 songs became so well known that they have almost become part of the folklore of Western culture. Others remained virtually unknown: they are untapped treasures of Romanticism. Fortunately, Schubert was his own treasure hunter, as he regularly reused song melodies as themes for an instrumental piece. Together with baritone Raoul Steffani, The Van Swieten Society has been dugging into Schubert's song oeuvre, a treasure greater than that of Croesus. Invaluable, for example, is Der Tod und das Mädchen, reused by Schubert in the string quartet in d minor.

The overwhelming level of compositions from Schubert's last year, 1828, give his early death an extra tragic aspect. Schubert was not in good health and the feverish production of the last 11 months of his life must have exhausted him: the Symphony in C, string quintet in C, the last three piano sonatas, the song cycle Winterreise, and the second piano trio in E-flat, for which the Notturno was originally meant to be the slow movement but was replaced by Schubert himself: these are but a sampling of the overwhelming array of masterpieces by the composer who died at the age of 31.

Program:
Schubert Songs (o.a. Ständchen) for bariton and piano
Schubert Ständchen D. 957 vfor viola and piano
Schubert Notturno in Es D. 897 for pianotrio
Schubert Auf dem Strom, D. 943 for bariton, viola en piano
Schubert Der Lindenbaum and Die Post from Winterreise, D. 911 for bariton and pianotrio (Arr. Jacobus den Herder)
Schubert Der Tod und das Mädchen - Lied
Schubert Der Tod und das Mädchen - Strijkkwartet in d, D. 810

Van Swieten Society
The Van Swieten Society is a collective of musicians with a passion for chamber music from the classical and early-romantic periods. The ensemble plays on period instruments and regularly invites guest musicians who are related to its playing style. This flexible approach guarantees an adventurous choice of repertoire with various line-ups. The Van Swieten Society specializes first and foremost in the great masters of the musically rich period from Bach to Schumann. In addition, intensive research in international libraries still yields new discoveries; high-quality works that have fallen into oblivion for all kinds of reasons and deserve to be heard again. All this leads to colorful programs with strong themes.

Van Swieten Society with special guest Raoul Steffani - bariton
Heleen Hulst and Ivan Iliev violin
Elisabeth Smalt, viola
Matyas Virag, cello
Bart van Oort, fortepiano