Schuberts Violine

Franz Schubert, who almost never owned his own violin, created music of remarkable inwardness for this instrument. He was not a virtuoso in the conventional sense of the word, but rather a master in the soul-stirring eloquence of sound. Like his piano works, his pieces for violin and piano also open up that atmosphere of "there" in which the earthly merges into transcendence. In their dialogue, the opposite worlds of the violin - the "torn timbre" - and the piano - the "bound melody" - come together into a lyrical unity that "represents" nothing, but simply "is". Between 1816 and 1817, Schubert composed four sonatas in which he oriented himself towards Mozart while going his own way. Behind the cheerful façade of the so-called "sonatinas" often lies deep seriousness. The young composer transforms the classical form into a space of floating harmony in which melody takes the place of motivic work - music as sensation, not as construction. In the A major Sonata of 1817, this principle reaches pure lyricism: heaven and earth touch each other without ever coming together. Ten years later come two late masterworks: the Rondeau brillant in B minor (1826) and the Fantasie in C major (1827). Both are dedicated to the young violinist Josef Slawjk, whose virtuosity inspires Schubert to penetrate mentally into the Brilliant. A mysterious abyss lurks behind the glittering surface of the rondeau - Paganini's "demonic spirit" appears transfigured as the voice of an angel. In the Fantasie, Schubert finally transcends all formal boundaries. The work, which weaves the song "Sei mir gegrüßt" into its structure, becomes a musical symbol of farewell and redemption. Virtuosic gestures are transformed into existential expression; the song of love rings out as a distant memory - between dream, death and transcendence. This music is not a concert piece, but a poetic revelation: Schubert's "music of the spheres", in which the "here" and the "there" become one.