Schubert/Liszt – Der Doppelgänger

»In its spare disciplined use of line and colour, the matching of music and verse, its immediacy of impact, no song ever written can compare with ›Der Doppelgänger‹.«
Gerald Moore (1899–1987)

#SchubertLiszt

In a certain sense orchestrated Lieder by Franz Schubert (1797–1828) could be considered as a preliminary stage to the genre of orchestral song as we know it from the German-speaking area especially by composers such as Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Alexander Zemlinsky. Distinguished composers such as Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and later Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Arnold Schönberg, Max Reger, Benjamin Britten, but also eminent conductors such as Felix Mottl, Felix Weingartner and Hermann Scherchen have arranged Schubert Lieder with orchestra introducing them to a larger public in the orchestra concert. For all this, Schubert’s Romanze from the Singspiel Rosamunde may have served as a source of inspiration.

At a very early stage and his whole life long Franz Liszt (1811–1886) supported Franz Schubert. This is proven for example by his numerous piano transcriptions of Schubert Lieder during his intensive time of travelling as pianist with which he was paying homage to the composer, who passed away at an early age, playing a decisive role to make his Lieder more popular. There should only be mentioned Liszt’s version of Schubert’s so-called Schwanengesang (1838–39).

The composer orchestrated a total of six Schubert Lieder, four of which have been published 1871 by Robert Forberg in Leipzig. The fifth Lied (Der Doppelgänger) was considered as unpublished so far. The sixth Lied (Der Abschied) has come to be regarded as lost for a long time. Liszt’s orchestration of Schubert’s Der Doppelgänger from his Schwanengesang cycle, which is published herewith for the first time in a scholarly edition, was created 1860 in Weimar.

The edition of the fifth Lied closes a gap. Admittedly the score was first issued in 2002 in a Liszt periodical, but additional manuscripts were used for this critical edition. The evaluation of the new sources reveals a revision in the orchestration. For instance the english horn has been deleted in favour of a practicable and usual woodwind section. Moreover, the french horn must not be played muted (gestopft) but muffled (gedämpft). Thus the critical new edition leads in details to a different sonic result.

The foreword deals with findings of the genesis and the performance history that had not been previously considered and describes the sources. A critical report discussing the sources in detail completes the critical edition.

Composer: Schubert, Franz (1797–1828)
Arranger: Liszt, Franz (1811–1886)
Lyricist: Heine, Heinrich (1797–1856)
Edition: Spindler, Matthias (*1963)
Opus: Der Doppelgänger [S 375/5 · R 651/5]
Scoring: Voice – Orchestra
Instruments: 2 Fl · 2 Ob · 2 Cl (A) · 2 Bsn – 2 Hn (F) · 3 Trb – Timp – Str
Key: B minor
Duration: 05:00

New Critical Edition

• Based on all surviving sources
• Foreword with an explanation of the genesis and the performance history as well as the sources
• With Critical Report