An die Nachtigall ("Geuss nich to laut"), song for voice & piano, D. 196 (Op. posth. 172/3)

• Date: May 22, 1815
• Composer: Franz Schubert
• Period: Romantic (1820-1869)

Review

An die Nachtigal (To the Nightingale) (D. 196) of May 1815 is one of Schubert's most impulsive and romantic songs. Although he sets Ludwig Hölty's two-verse poem strophically, the song has nothing of the staid qualities of a strophic setting. Schubert's tempo indication, "Restless, plaintive. Growing faster in tempo until the end of each verse," fits the extravagant quality of the song. The vocal line is literally wild, an extremely emotional line which is both recitative and aria, surging across the entire tessitura of the singer's range. The piano accompaniment is no secco recitative accompaniment, either, but a flurry and a flutter of notes with a cadenza at the end of each verse. In hearing An die Nachtigal, one is reminded that Schubert was only 18, an extremely passionate 18, when he composed it. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Franz Schubert: Lieder, Volume I
Franz Schubert: The Complete Songs	2005
Julius Patzak singt Ausgewählte Lieder
Schubert: Lieder	2004
Schubert: Lieder	1993
Schubert: Lieder	2008
Schubert: Lieder
Schubert: Lieder
Schubert: Lieder [Box Set]	2005
Schubert: Poets of Sensibility, Vol. 4	2006
Schubert: The Complete Lieder
Schubert: The Complete Songs, Vol. 7	1990
Songs of the Nightingale	1995
The Man at the Piano, CDs 37-38: Franz Schubert
The Schubert Recordings

Previous:	An die Nachtigall ("Er liegt und schläft"), song for voice & piano, D. 497 (Op. 98/1)
Next:	An die Nachtigall ("Geuss nicht so laut"), song for voice & piano, Op. 46/4