Listen to Schubert! ENCHORE

Countess Carolina Esterházy Karolina was the name of the Hungarian lady whom Schubert's late but all the more marvellous four-hand piano piece, his Fantasie in F minor, written in 1928. was dedicated. The gifted pianist, Carolina, had set Schubert’s heart on fire a decade earlier, and as one of the composer’s biographers put it: ″This flame continued to burn until his death.”  Although it is too beautiful (and sad) to be true, this composition, starting with an unforgettable motif, certainly has a secret in store.

″Give me thy hand, oh! maiden fair to see,/For I'm a friend, hath ne'er distress'd thee./Take courage now, and very soon/Within mine arms shalt softly rest thee!"  Schubert set Matthias Claudius’ poem in music in 1817, which he then reached back to when  – with already fragile health – he wrote his String Quartet in  D minor, still known as ″Death and the Maiden″. It marks the beginning of the end, the milestone for the last phase in his career or his acquaintance with the notion of death. Various interpretations approach this long-venerated cult piece from multiple angles now performed by the renowned Keller Quartet.