Tag Archives: schubert

Gerald Moore plays Schubert’s “An die Musik”

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Gerald Moore (1899-1987)

Gerald Moore was an English pianist. He played for many of the great singers and musicians of the 20th Century. During Moore’s lifetime, pianists who accompanied singers and instrumentalists were often treated as second-rate musicians. Accompanists were not paid much, and their names were often featured in small lettering on concert posters. Gerald did his utmost to turn the situation around by lecturing about the art of piano accompaniment, writing books for singers and accompanists to help them better understand and interpret art songs and other repertoire, and by performing and recording with many of his esteemed colleagues. He also wrote a very witty autobiography called “Am I Too Loud?” in which he mentioned many funny anecdotes and talked about several of the singers he worked with and befriended.

One of Gerald Moore’s favourite songs (which he recorded and performed many times with singers) was Franz Schubert’s “An die Musik” which translates to “To the Music.” He arranged the song for solo piano, recorded it in 1949, and famously played it at his final performance after the singers he accompanied asked him to play a solo. Here is Gerald Moore playing his piano arrangement in a recording from 1949.

Franz Schubert: Seligkeit, D. 433

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived during the late classical and early romantic eras. He wrote chamber music, piano music, symphonies, operas, but it is for his around 600 lieder (art songs) that he is best known. For those songs Schubert used poems written by the top poets of his time. He not only composed beautiful melodies, but also wrote piano accompaniments that were very ingenious in the way they helped to tell the story behind the poems.

Here is one of Schubert’s most beloved art songs called Seligkeit (which means bliss). This is a lively charming little waltz tune. In this recording it is sung by Soprano Kathleen Battle and accompanied on the piano by James Levine. On the homepage of my website I have put a link where you can purchase my arrangement of this song for piano solo. Enjoy.