LDV72

PHILIPPE CASSARD 17 The energetic song Auf der Bruck D853 (On Die Bruck, a poem written by Schulze as he sat on top of the Bruck hill overlooking Göttingen) seems to echo Schubert’s descriptions. ‘Wohl könnt ich über Berg und Feld / Auf deinem schlanken Rücken fliegen / Und mich am bunten Spiel der Welt, / An holden Bildern mich vergnügen.’ 2 Village music, cowbells in the mountain pastures, a literal transcription of yodelling (the second theme of the first movement Allegro in alla breve time!), peasant dances, shepherds’ songs, chimes, mandolins, harmonicas, hunting- horn calls and drum rolls, church bells ringing at full peal: the ‘soundtrack’ of this sonata is in itself a jubilant sensory experience, unique in Schubert. The composer organises his first movement into a frenetic race that ends in breathlessness at the joy and freedom he has experienced. The more intimate and soothing melody in the Con moto is combined with the vision of those awe-inspiring mountains: the barrier of the Untersberg is convincingly depicted in this prodigious succession of repeated fortississimo ( fff ) chords in C major, the key of Jupiter! And the Rondo marks the return to Vienna, the rattling coach, the happy memories, the scraps of melodies picked up in villages that the travellers hum or whistle to themselves. TheWanderer, on the pianissimo last notes, sets down his baggage. In exactly the same mood as we hear in Abschied from Schwanengesang : ‘ Du hast mich wohl niemals noch traurig gesehn, / So kann es auch jetzt nicht beimAbschied geschehn .’ 3 2. Well could I fly over hill and field / On your [his horse’s] lean back / And be satisfied with the world’s merry play /And its fair sights. 3.You never yet sawme sad, / Nor can it be so at our farewell.