Schubert in 1825

Graham Johnson continues his survey of the final years of Schubert’s life, 200 years on. For today’s event he is joined by the renowned soprano Martha Guth, and a team of Oxford Song Young Artists.

Graham writes of 1825:

ʻ1825 started out as another bad year for Schubert, with a short period in hospital, another setback in the illness that had continued to plague him in 1824, and which he had contracted in 1823. It is fortunate that 1825 did not continue or prolong an unhappy sequence of setbacks which had gone on long enough – in fact, it ranks as one of the happiest and most productive twelve months in the composer’s life.

Apart from three important Piano Sonatas, 1825 was primarily a year of song. There were no fewer than nine settings of Walter Scott, including seven from the epic poem The Lady of the Lake. He composed pairs of songs to texts by Lappe (including ‘Der Einsame’), Craigher, Pyrker and Wilhelm Schütz (the Lacrimas settings). Schubert’s discovery of the poetry of Ernst Schulze also produced five masterful songs with more to come in 1826.

A year of great creativity for Schubert then, but its most uplifting feature was the epic journey he made through Upper Austria with the baritone Johann Michael Vogl. Between May and September, the composer enjoyed the only extended holiday in his lifetime, a working holiday that was also a Lieder recital tour (the first ever in history) which turned into a royal progress celebrating Schubert’s genius. Never before had this duo been lavished with such praise in so many places, and never before, and never again, was Schubert to experience such awe in the presence of the majestic landscapes of his native land.ʼ