Franz Schubert: Operatic Overtures

Although Franz Schubert’s Lieder, his symphonies and his chamber music are staples in concert halls and on disc, his music for the stage is much less well known. He began composing operas in 1811, at the tender age of 13, and it is probable that the tuition he received from Antonio Salieri around that time fuelled his interest for the stage even further. Although he had one of his first public successes with the Singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder, Schubert later encountered difficulties in getting his operas staged: most of them would remain unperformed for a long time after his death in 1828, and are still rarities in the repertoire. With a few exceptions, the overtures to these works have suffered a similar neglect, even though they display an astonishing abundance of musical ideas, and possess a stirring dramatic character beyond anything found in for instance the symphonic works. The striking originality of the music becomes even more obvious when performed on period instruments, as on the present recording with Manfred Huss and the fifty musicians in the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien, whose previous discs on BIS of works by Haydn has been warmly received by critics worldwide. Their recordings of Schubert’s overtures were made in 1997 for release on the Koch/Schwann label, a disc which after its deletion from the catalogue has become a collectors’ item, with rare new copies being offered for as much as USD 200. For the present re-release the original recording has been remastered by BIS Records.