Jan Kobow, the tenor on this album, won first prize at the 11th International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1998.
Composition History
Schubert's friend and publisher Haslinger published the songs in the order Schubert indicated, adding the fourteenth lied, Die Taubenpost, which was Schubert's last composed melody.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Schubert's Schwanengesang represents a new way of conceiving lieder, where music reveals the full psyche of the text, achieving in minutes what Wagner took hours to resolve.
Performer Biography
Kristian Bezuidenhout, the fortepiano player, won the prestigious First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Bruges Fortepiano Competition in 2001 at the age of 21.
Composition History
Schubert intended to collect the Rellstab and Heine poems into sets for publication to improve his financial situation, a theory supported by an August 1828 autograph manuscript.
Composer Biography
The poems by Rellstab for Schubert's Schwanengesang were originally offered to Beethoven, and after Beethoven's death, his factotum Anton Schindler gave them to Schubert.
