Over het album

SCHUBERT SCHWANENGESANG   Notes  by Andreas Bauer Kanabas

The first group of songs on texts by Ludwig Rellstab starts out in a relatively carefree, rapturous tone: a mood of spring is in the air. In Frühlingssehnsucht, “swelling desire” is colorfully illustrated by images of nature such as the silvery gurgling brook – an evocation of splendid vitality. But clouds soon darken the horizon: the brook becomes a raging torrent of negative emotions. Euphoria gives way to disappointment. The rapturous attitude is curbed: we hear of farewell, with a clear touch of bitterness. In the next group of settings of texts by Heinrich Heine, the story returns to its onset: now less rapturous, somewhat more aloof, and with even more bitterness at the end.

We have chosen to order these songs in a meaningful succession that begins with the awakening of love and soon reaches its prompt demise. Is this about love, or only lust? Why does everything feel so unsatisfactory and painful in the end? Are the fisher maidens of this world too clueless to sense that the poet has some truly admirable qualities? Otherwise, why does it always end in defeat? “My heart is entirely like the sea: there are storms, there is ebb and flow, but in the depths, you can find many beautiful pearls.” Does this passage hold the key?

With cheerful frankness, he who longs for fulfillment starts out by admitting he has a tendency toward capriciousness and seduction. He feels helplessly pulled to and fro by his emotions as if they were ocean tides. Pressing his suit, he longs to win the fisher maiden’s trust – but she would have to dive very far down to find a beautiful pearl.

By the time we have reached the next song, the two are staring at one another in sheer incomprehension. Tears flow silently, and separation is already underway. “And oh, I cannot believe I have lost you,” we hear in the second-to-last song. He who searches and never reaches his destination, never achieving redemption or a homecoming, ultimately suffers under his own nature. The “world of sorrows” he must bear is nothing else than his own unfulfilled yearning: a yearning to be loved, and to love. The CD closes with Die Taubenpost, which stands for itself, yet also allegorically summarizes what all these songs have in common: yearning.

© 2022 Andreas Bauer Kanabas