2 Schubert Song Arrangements

Die Forelle (The Trout) (1846)

Ständchen (Serenade) from Schwanengesang (1839)

Playing his arrangement of Die Forelle at a concert in Marseilles one day, Liszt found the audience reacting in a curiously reverential way. He realised why only when he saw that a misprint in the programme, which read “La Trinité” instead of “La Truite,” had misled them into expecting homage to something rather more sacred than a tasty freshwater fish. If there were any Schubert lovers in Marseille at the time, they would have been reverential for different reasons. Authenticity not being a current concern, they would surely have noted with approval that Liszt’s virtuoso elaboration, however extravagant, is inspired by Schubert’s own keyboard imagery and that, with a few outrageous exceptions, even the harmonies derive from the original song. Liszt’s approach to Schubert’s songs - he arranged fifty-five of them in all - is usually rather more modest. His version of the popular Ständchen (from Schwanengesang) is a good example - up to the point, that is, where he interpolates a third “stanza” eccentrically but magically reverberant with delicate echo effects.