Télécharger le livret - Outhere

we find this for example in the case of the song The
Trout. However, the opening rhythm of this Scherzo
is not Austrian; it actually comes from Bohemia
and corresponds exactly to the dance we know as
“Furiant”, which Dvorˇák and Smetana were later
to reinvent or reuse. Contrasting with these dance
elements, the Trio of the Scherzo is to be played in
a very free rhythmic manner; its melody, with its repeated
notes, derives its intimacy from an oration
or litany of the Austrian church. The second movement,
on the other hand, already shows in some
respects features of a meditation; and Schubert,
who ordinarly was little inclined to express his religious
feelings nonetheless alludes to them in a letter
dated 25 (or 28) July, 1825, which he addressed to
his father and stepmother: “They also wondered
greatly at my piety, which i expressed in a hymn to
the Holy Virgin and which, it seems, grips every soul
and turns it to devotion. i think this is due to the
fact that i have never forced devotion in myself and
never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless
it overcomes me unawares; but then it is revealed in
all its true devotion”.
The fourth movement finally is a serene wander
along some pathway inundated with light, leading
to the summit of a mountain or along the banks of
a lake, or perhaps in some inn where there is dancing
and eating. The exquisite writing which suggests
the playing of guitars accompanying the wanderer’s
songs. The five-part rondo form (ABACA)
corresponds to that of the second movement. The
second poetic episode might be said to evoke a
boat trip on a lake which has just been interrupted
or merely disturbed by a storm or tempest which
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springs from nature, just as do the inmost depths
of our soul. With the recapitulation of the second
theme, the motif which served as accompaniment
to the wanderer is now transformed into a “twist”,
giving the effect of a rhythmic acceleration. The end
of the Sonata is one of incomparable beauty. The
eternal pilgrim seems to be lost in the distance; a
final wave – the rest is only yearning.
∆
Sonata in no. 17 G major, opus 78, D 894
1826
This work opens with a two-bar gently rocking,
almost motionless phrase, of indescribable beauty.
it finds a reply, in a higher tessitura, which resembles
it and returns us to the first phrase. This time
the first phrase is more broadly balanced, opening
out and expanding. Everything is on a larger scale
than anything we have previously encountered, even
in Schubert. This start reminds me of the picture
of a calm lake in the first light of dawn, probably in
Spring with the sun rising and everything awakening
as life begins afresh. At the culmination of the
first theme a second theme, in dance rhythm, emerges
organically, and is immediately repeated with varied
figuration; then comes a third and fourth idea:
finally, developing from the initial theme, there is an
epilogue which ends the exposition.
One important detail has not been mentioned:
after the conclusion of the first chain of motifs in
G major, a new rhythmic, mysterious motif springs
up in the softest pianissimo, first in B minor, then
in B major, expressing a nostalgia of indescribable
profundity. For Schubert the relationships between