Schubert was, of course, one of the great classical composers. But great artists have not always been given their due public recognition during their lifetimes. Sadly, explains Raz Kohn, that was the case with the now-celebrated Austrian composer. He didn’t hang around too long on terra firma, dying at the early age of 31, but he did leave us with a sizeable body of work, some of which makes its way into the 18th edition of the Schubertiade festival, which takes place up and down the country from January 26 through February 9, with founder artistic director and cellist Kohn once again at the helm.
It seems that the political shenanigans of the day, in the early 19th century, didn’t help to further Schubert’s career. “The Congress of Vienna [in 1814-15] placed a lot of restrictions [on the arts]. There were almost no concerts at the time,” says Kohn. The situation called for a Plan B line of thinking that, a couple of centuries later, spawned the current Schubertiade format.
“People played music at home,” Kohn continues. “The bourgeoisie began to evolve, and people had bigger homes, which accommodated musical soirées with pianos.”
That sociopolitical development caught Schubert at the inception of his compositional and performance career. In the early 1820s, Schubert was a member of a close-knit circle of artists and students who met up to socialize and enjoy some musical entertainment. And despite the odd disruption by the authorities on the lookout for real or imagined political insurgents, the get-togethers went on uninterrupted and provided Schubert with opportunities to showcase his latest creations, albeit to limited audiences. “All his life, Schubert operated in Beethoven’s shadow,” says Kohn.
The memory of Mozart, who died only six years before Schubert was born, was also fresh in the minds of contemporary music fans. “Schubert never got to hear any orchestral renditions of his work during his lifetime other than Rosamunde, which was written for a play,” Kohn explains.
The concert halls’ loss was the intimate domestic milieu’s gain, and that cozier arrangement made its way into the Schubertiade scene, which emerged around 30 years after Schubert’s death and forms the conceptual nucleus of the Israeli event. “We settled on a number of principles at the outset,” Kohn notes. “We decided to hold the festival close to Schubert’s birthday, which is on January 31.”
That turned out to be an opportune slot. “It’s right in the middle of the concert season. And it is nice to invite foreign musicians to appear at our festival. It’s also nice for them to get away from the cold weather in Europe,” Kohn chuckles.
SINCE OCTOBER 7, of course, that has involved trying logistics but Kohn did manage to lure Austrian tenor Daniel Johannsen over to join three Israeli vocalists for a number of slots at the concerts taking place here in Rishon LeZion, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Bet Gabriel, Tel Aviv, and Sde Boker.
Kohn says the vocal side of the Schubertiade is a given. “If you can say anything about Schubert’s contribution to classical music, you have to say it is the songs he wrote. German Lieder changed in the wake of Schubert’s impact. And that was practically the only thing that brought him to the attention of the public during his lifetime.”
The artistic director dipped into various areas of Schubert’s oeuvre. The January 30 (8 p.m.) date at the Ra’anana Performing Arts Center, for example, features “A Selection of Songs for 4 male voices, and the Piano Trio op.99.” Johannsen is on board for that one with the rest of the cast, including violinist Hagai Shaham, cellist Hillel Zori, and pianist Irit Rub, supported by the Cecilia Ensemble choral outfit. The program gets a reprise at Bet Gabriel, on the southern shores of Lake Kinneret, on February 1 (7 p.m.) with Johannsen also appearing at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv on February 3 (8 p.m.). The conservatory concert also includes a rendition by Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major D.960 for piano and his Trio in B flat major op.99 for violin, cello and piano.
Kohn says he is particularly looking forward to that outing. “After many years of trying to make this happen, we are finally getting to do Schubert’s last sonata, the mighty B flat major, at the start of the concerts in Haifa [at the Rappaport Auditorium on January 27, 7:30 p.m.] and Tel Aviv.”
The said more expansive format concerts – there are several cozier shows between – are divided into three parts, concluding with the piano trio. The middle slot, says Kohn, imbues this year’s offering with added drawing value. “The second part is the special thing at this year’s Schubertiade. For the first time, we are directing the spotlight to an area of Schubert’s work, which, you could say, has been neglected. His secular songs don’t get a lot of airings, in contrast with his choral songs. They do go under the general choral umbrella, but there is a differentiation between his religious works and secular works.”
Kohn says there are plenty of church-oriented compositions to be had. “He wrote six masses and infinite numbers of [hymn format] Stabat Mater and [liturgical] Magnificat, and oratorios, with organs, pianos, and for mixed choirs.” Kohn got an inspirational nudge in the desired direction from a mammoth recording project overseen by German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch. “He recorded all Schubert’s choral music over 50 years ago. That produced 11 CDs of absolutely everything Schubert wrote for choirs. That inspired me to collate all the material, and for this year’s festival, we decided to concentrate on a selection of secular songs for four male voices.”
He says it was about getting back to the pure base format. “Schubert originally wrote the songs for four voices – two tenors, a baritone, and a bass.”
That necessarily leads the score in a different direction, particularly due to the subject matter. “The textual sources are the crucial thing here. Schubert was connected to the literary milieu of the time, in Vienna but also in Berlin. That included poets whom we know only thanks to Schubert putting their work to music. I think the audiences here are going to enjoy that.”
In fact, songs abound across the program, which offers quality renditions of stirring melodic vocal and instrumental works right across the board. Schubert may have had to bide his time before stepping out of Beethoven’s giant shadow and getting his chance to shine but the annual Schubertiade festival provides further proof – if it were needed – that Schubert is well worth his place in the classical music pantheon.
For tickets and more information: https://en.schubertiade.co.il/
