Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt D877 No.1 (1826)

Amongst Schubert’s hundreds of Lieder there are only two true duets, Licht und Liebe D352 (to words by Matthäus von Collin) and the fifth of his six versions of Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt from Wilhlem Meisters Lehrjahre. If it is the most effective of his settings it is probably because it most closely reflects the situation for which Goethe wrote the verse in the novel. In a “dreamy longing” as he convalesces from an illness, Wilhelm Meister is visited by the Harper and his daughter Mignon who sing to him “with passionate expression in the form of an irregular duet.” Beginning in dreamy longing, this texturally irregular duet - sometimes in canon, sometimes in rhythmic unison - intensifies in expression to a passionate recitative at “Es schwindelt mir” over piano tremolandos that continue to rumble under the closing repeat of the opening lines.