Schubertreise XXX by Schubert, Schubert, F. L., sek 14 bal 2024, Nuo (2024/2024), National Concert Hall (NCH), Dublin, Ireland

Conor Biggs and Michel Stas return to the Kevin Barry Room with part thirty of their titanesque Schubert series, the performance of the complete songs of Schubert. “Mayrhofer’s Einsamkeit is finished, and I believe it to be the best thing I have done, for I was without a care”. So wrote Schubert on completing this lengthy song in July 1818, a kind of ‘seven ages of man’. It can be regarded as the first song cycle and opens our thirtieth recital in this series devoted to the complete Schubert songs. Schubert’s middle years see him turning towards the solo piano works, and their style is palpable in songs such as Die Gebüsche and Abendbilder. The programme also includes three sonnets, settings of Petrarch translated by August Wilhelm von Schlegel. The sonnet is notoriously difficult to set to music, and it is interesting to observe Schubert’s response. Other songs included are two contrasted religious settings, one somewhat sanctimonious, the other deeply felt (Schubert’s disparaging remarks about ‘hell-fire ranting priests’ notwithstanding).