What were the last compositions of great composers of classical music? Some of these final compositions are the farewells of composers, and some of them are magnum opuses created by years of experience. In this two-part article and video, I will identify and analyze the last compositions of 25 composers, this is the first article and we'll take a look at the last works and last period of 13 composers. Video:
I should mention that there are some exceptional cases in some of the compositions in the video. For example, the last works of Liszt and Stravinsky are actually arrangements, but I chose the last original works. Last compositions of Mozart and Bruckner were not completed, they are usually played in the completed version by others, but I preferred the original unfinished version. Along with the compositions on the list, there are other compositions that Berg, Scriabin, Bartok and Mendelssohn worked on simultaneously. There is another little song that Richard Strauss composed after "Four Last Songs", but I put it in thinking that his main farewell is "Last Four Last Songs". After Beethoven's string quartets, there are initial drafts that we cannot call a composition.
The last works of some important composers are not in the list because I've selected composers whose last compositions are the most noteworthy. Also, some composers did not compose in their last years, such as Handel and Ravel. For example Handel's last known composition, "Jephtha", was seven years before his death. The compositions of the composers on the list are very close to their deaths, with the exception of Stravinsky. Apart from this, compositions such as Busoni Doctor Faust, Messaien Concert à quatre could have been included, but I couldn't because the video was too long.
Now let's take a closer look at the late period and last compositions of 13 composers!
Frédéric Chopin
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| Frédéric Chopin (1811 - 1849) in 1849 |
Mazurka no. 49 in F minor, op. 68 no. 4 composed in 1849, the year of Chopin's death, this mazurka is considered Chopin's last work. It was found by Jane Stirling among composer's notes and sketches after Chopin's death. Unfortunately, probably Chopin couldn't complete this work due to illness. In the sketch, Chopin's handwriting is so intricate that many musicologists have tried to decipher it.
Chopin must have been very ill when he composed this mazurka. Chopin had tuberculosis since 1837, 12 years before his death. But in the last few years, tuberculosis had reached its final stage. By the time we reached his final year, 1849, Chopin was so frail and lacking in energy that he spent most of his days in bed, unable to compose as before. He also reduced giving piano lessons due to his illness, most of his income was from here, so his financial situation also collapsed. He went on a tour of England with his last energy, but did not achieve the success he hoped for, further deteriorating his already bad health. Doctors said there was nothing they could do. He was very aware of his frail health, he stated the urgency of the situation in letters to his sister and told them to take a loan if necessary and come to him immediately. The exact date of the mazurka has not been determined, but it must be close to these periods.
It is not easy for me to describe the feeling of this last mazurka. There is no exaggerated sentimentality here, and it may not even sound sad when first heard. But there is a deep bitterness that envelops you as you listen to it repeatedly. The impression it gave me was this: In this last work, Chopin was looking for hope but not finding it and all he can do is reminisce about the past.
Although it was a short piece, it contained a surprising amount of chromatism. Many musicologists and composers considered this work -in the modulation part of the work- as the precursor to Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Witold Lutoslawski, one of the important composers of the 20th century, referred to this mazurka in his book: ". . . spectacular, although perhaps more unexpected moment is a modulation in the last Mazurka F minor op. 68 of Chopin, in which we find and identical harmonic progression as in the initial bars of Tristan. Equally surprising moments can be found in the last compositions of Liszt, which clearly presage Debussy and late Scriabin."
Franz Liszt
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| Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) in 1884 |
Franz Liszt's last work was probably an arrangement for Mozart's Ave verum corpus -for organ- in the year he died in 1886, but let's look at his last original composition. Actually, Liszt's last original composition is not easy to pinpoint, he composed many small pieces in late 1885 and some of his compositions from 1885 were lost and some were undated. However, our information indicates that "En rêve" ("Dreaming") was likely Liszt's last original composition. The "Cambridge Companion to Liszt", one of the most comprehensive books on Liszt, also points to this work as one of Liszt's last works: "'En Reve. Nocturne' one of his last pieces, written in late 1885 for his student August Stradal." Also, in the chronological listing of Liszt's works made for Grove Music Online in 2010, En Reve appears as the last original piece.
Now I will make a purely personal inference and take it together with his other works that he composed at that time. It can be said that this work, En rêve, stands in contrast to all the works of Liszt in his last period. Liszt's last period is dark and experimental; The identified themes are death, depression, despair and sadness. Nuages gris (grey clouds), Unstern (sinister), Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch (Funeral prelude and Funeral march), Abschied (farewell), Seven Hungarian Historical Portraits, La lugubre gondola (the lugubrious gondola)... Almost all works composed after 1880 are in similar dark tones. In the early 1880s he said: "I carry with me a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound." His compositions were much simpler than before, he used emptiness and silence like never before. The effective use of silence and simplicity also intensely reflects the "purposelessness" that Liszt felt. These works also pointed to the future music, but this was not our topic for now.
It is quite interesting to compare these works composed in the same period as En Reve. For Liszt, worldly things were depressive and death-related. He composes elegies for important Hungarian figures; gray clouds and gondolas gave it dark connotations. But in En rêve (Dreaming) it's the opposite, I wouldn't call it "joyful" but a poetic and peaceful little nocturnal piece, there is an atmosphere where sweetness and sadness coexist, it is unrelated to all his other works of that period. In addition, it is a composition that does not use emptiness or silence like his other works, and ends in a snap. What I'm implying is that Liszt is just at peace in his sleep and that's the only place where dark thoughts don't surround him. His nightmare was when he awoke and was probably waiting for death, thinking there would be peace.
Bela Bartok
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| Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) in 1945? This is his last photo |
Before he died, Bartok was working on two works: The Third Piano Concerto and the Viola Concerto, i chose the piano concerto for the video. Bartok designed this piano concerto as a birthday surprise for his wife, Ditta Pásztory. She was a pianist just like Bartok and was born on October 31st. Bartok died on September 26 1945, just a month before Ditta's birthday, his birthday present almost complete, only the last 17 measures missing. Maybe it was more than a birthday present for Bartok, perhaps a special inheritance or farewell to his wife. 'Cos while composing this piece, Bartok was suffering from advanced stage of leukemia.
According to Bartok's son, Bartok refused to go to the hospital after his illness got so bad and wanted to stay at home for one more day, because he wanted to finish this concerto: "One evening Father asked me to his bed and told me of the wherabouts of various manuscripts and about the will. I was horrified and assured him that this would be quite unnecessary, because he was getting better. His temperature suddenly did go down, and that was worst of all. Dr. Rappaport decided that Father should go to the hospital immediately. There was an argument. Father did not like hospitals. What could they do to help? Besides he had some important work to finish. (An extra day would have given him the chance to orchestrate the last seventeen or so bars of the Third Piano Concerto, which was practically completed at that time. As the extra day was not allowed, he marked on the score the number of bars still to follow.) I can still see Father beg the doctor to let him stay home another day, and now, knowing what had to happen, I realize it would not have made any difference. Dr. Rappaport was adamant; the ambulance came and went. At this time already Father was very sick. We were there almost all the time, going home only to sleep. One morning early the hospital called. We went over. Father was getting a blood transfusion and was begging the nurse to take it away. Asked us to have the nurse with her needle taken away. He knew it could not help. 'In my last moment they cannot leave me in peace.' "
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| Bela Bartok - Ditta Pásztory-Bartók |
The portrait of the last period in which the piece was composed seems too volatile for Bartok, he had entered a rather pessimistic period just before the composition: Illness, creativity crisis, financial problems, foreignness in a new country. During his early years in America (1940s), Bartok suffered a creative drought where he was unable to compose anything. He had to leave Hungary due to the second world war. From the very beginning, Bartok was opposed to the Nazis, even in 1933 he refused to perform in Germany. He would reluctantly leave Hungary after Hungary sided with Nazi Germany. But in America, where he had just arrived, he was not well known as a composer and financial problems arose. Contrary to the general belief, his financial situation was not very bad, but he was not comfortable at all. Being a proud person, he almost never accepted charity. And it was at this time that the disease appeared.
But in his last years he started to get better. Although he was getting weaker physically, he regained his creativity and his new compositions began to be successful in America.
Unlike Bartok's modern period, his third piano concerto was a piece with some Romantic aspects and even some Neoclassical structure. Although there were some pessimistic passages, it seems that the composer is happy that he regained his creativity despite his bad health. Especially the bird theme in the second part is one of the most beautiful bird reproductions ever written.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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| Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) in 1893 |
What was Tchaikovsky's last work? General opinion is that Tchaikovsky's last composition is the 6th Symphony (Pathétique), especially the last movement is like a sad farewell or "swan song". However, the answer is actually a bit complicated and depending on your point of view the answer may be different. Because, just after Tchikovsky finished his 6th symphony, he began composing his Third Piano Concerto. Tchaikovsky finished scoring the 'Allegro brillante' in October 1893, a few weeks before his November 6 death. So the first movement of the third concerto was his final work. But there is a problem here! Many ideas in the 3rd piano concerto originated before the 6th symphony. It was an adaptation of a work he had left Symphony in E-flat. Even though some parts are new, many parts predate the 6th symphony. What Tchaikovsky's final composition was in this case is debatable, so I will refer to both works.
Tchaikovsky started working on a new symphony after his 5th symphony, but then left it and started a new symphony entirely from scratch. Letter to his brother: "I am now wholly occupied with the new work. . . and it is hard for me to tear myself away from it. I believe it comes into being as the best of my works. I must finish it as soon as possible, for I have to wind up a lot of affairs and I must soon go to London. I told you that I had completed a Symphony which suddenly displeased me, and I tore it up. Now I have composed a new symphony which I certainly shall not tear up."
His newly started symphony was the one we know today as the 6th symphony. Tchaikovsky was very excited about this new symphony and expressed his passion for it in his letters: “I want terribly to write a somewhat grandiose symphony, which would crown my artistic career… For some time I have carried in my head an outline plan for such a symphony… I hope that I shall not die without carrying out this intention.” and “I am already thinking of a new large composition, that is, of a symphony with a secret program.”
What was the "secret program" of the work implied by Tchaikovsky? We don't know this, we can only make personal inferences. The original title of the symphony was 'Pateticheskaya', 'Pathétique' (pathetic) is not actually a direct translation, 'Pateticheskaya' actually means passionate or emotional. Apart from this, Tchaikovsky does not give any information.
I want to share my own thoughts and feelings. This symphony has very sudden, unexpected and contrasting changes, both emotionally and structurally. There is always a contradiction in the whole of the work. The first movement has fluctuating changes, for example, there are moments when the peaceful melody of woodwind instruments turns into hell after an unexpected frightening explosion. The second movement is a typical waltz, waltz never has dark or sad connotations, it is a joyful dance and music but the waltz in the 6th symphony is dark and sad. The third and fourth movement should be considered together. When I listen to this symphony at live concerts, I always observed the audience, its effect on the audience who listened to the piece for the first time was very clear and unchanging: The 3rd section is in the form of a very strong and enthusiastic "finale", the audience, who thinks that the piece is over, enthusiastically stands up and applauds. The feeling that the third movement gives to the audience is a kind of victory, euphoria and power. But this is actually a fake finale, when the fourth movement suddenly begins, the "joy of victory" gives way to a feeling of defeat. The third is one of the strongest and climax moments of Tchaikovsky's entire corpus, but with the fourth movement, Tchaikovsky pushes the listener from the top to the bottom: The fourth episode is undoubtedly Tchaikovsky's most melancholic and depressive moment. This creates such a shock to the audience that the audience cannot applaud when the fourth movement is over.
In my opinion, the program of this work is that life can be turned upside down. Your happiest, most peaceful and strongest days may end in an instant and you may enter the worst and darkest period of your life. This idea of the program also has parallels with Tchaikovsky's life.
.jpg/1024px-Draft_of_Tchaikovsky's_Symphony_No._6_(8589411916).jpg) |
| Tchaikovsky's draft of the Sixth Symphony |
This work, which Tchaikovsky referred to as his "masterpiece", was a perfect farewell. Therefore, the theory emerged that Tchaikovsky committed suicide, and it was claimed that the program of the work was suicide. But Tchaikovsky started working on a new piece after finishing his 6th Symphony. If the 6th symphony were a kind of "suicide letter", why would Tchaikovsky start a new work? We cannot say for sure, but it is very likely that Tchaikovsky did not commit suicide, he died of cholera. I think the suicide theory sounds so mythical and unrealistic.
After seeing the pianist Louis Diémer's performance, Tchaikovsky began composing a piano concerto to dedicate to him. Tchaikovsky wrote to Zygmunt Stojowski that he started a new concerto after his 6th symphony: "As I wrote to you, my new Symphony is finished. I am now working on the scoring of my new (third) concerto for our dear Louis Diémer. When you see him, please tell him that when I proceeded to work on it, I realized that this concerto is of depressing and threatening length. Consequently I decided to leave only part one which in itself will constitute an entire concerto. The work will only improve the more since the last two parts were not worth very much."
Tchaikovsky was able to complete only the first movement of the piano concerto. The E-Flat symphony, which he lost interest in and stopped writing after his 6th symphony, was the basis of Tchaikovsky's third piano concerto.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
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| Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) |
Rachmaninoff's last work as a composer is Paraphrase on the Lullaby of Tchaikovsky. It was composed in 12 August 1941, and Rachmaninoff had its premiere in New York on 14 October. But this was not just an adaptation of the vocal piano piece for solo piano, Rachmaninoff had recreated the piece, so it was suitable for the "final composition" concept. Nevertheless, Rachmaninoff's last major and completely original composition was Symphonic Dances, composed in 1940.
Rachmaninoff had admired Tchaikovsky ever since his sister showed him Tchaikovsky's works. When Rachmaninoff became a composer, Tchaikovsky supported him and even conducted Rachmaninoff's "The Rock". After receiving the news of Tchaikovsky's death, Rachmaninoff began composing "Trio élégiaque No. 2" for him, and when he finished the piece, entitled "In Memory of a Great Artist", he dedicated it to his mentor and first major supporter, Tchaikovsky.
There is an interesting coincidence that Rachmaninoff's last composition is on Tchaikovsky. Like the end of Rachmaninoff's career, its beginning was an adaptation of the Tchaikovsky work, this now-lost Transcription was made by Rachmaninoff in 1886. Matthew Robert Walker's book "Rachmaninoff: The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers" draws attention to this incredible coincidence: "He made another transcription, this time of Tchaikovsky's 'Lullaby' (opus 16 No. 1). In the event this was Rachmaninoff's last work as a composer: an appropriate transcription, of music by Tchaikovksy, but an incredible conincidence. Fifty-five years eairlier, in another country, another continent, another culture, antoher century, the 13 year-old Sergei Rachmaninnoff began his career as a composer with a Tchkaikovsky transcription, the 'Manfred' Symphony for piano duet."
Alexander Scriabin
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| Alexander Scriabin (1871 - 1915) in 1914 |
The five preludes of Op 74 were the last works Alexander Scriabin completed before his death. He composed it just before he died of blood poisoning, which was certainly an unexpected death, but some of the words Scriabin used to describe this piece were death-related, Scriabin told Leonid Sabeneev that Op. 74 No. 2 was: "This is death! This is death as this emanation of the female which leads to unification. . . death and love. . . . this is the abyss. . . This is the Mysterium."
These preludes were originally intended for the Mystreium. Mystreium was his magnum opus that he had composed for decades (since 1903). It would be a one-week synesthetic feast in the Himalayas: music, scent, dance and lights all in one. But never finished. Prelude 2 was Scriabin's favorite on this set. For prelude number 3, Scriabin states that it should be played "like a cry" (comme un cri). For more details, check out "The Alexander Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore".
Johann Sebastian Bach
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| Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) in 1750 |
As accepted by many musicologists, the last piece Johann Sebastian Bach wrote was an Organ piece, the end of the set of The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes: "Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit" ("I Step Before Thy Throne, O Lord"), BWV 668.
Many people consider the incomplete Fuga a 3 Soggetti from The Art of Fugue to be Bach's last work, because his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote a sentence for the score: "Über dieser Fuge, ist der Verfasser gestorben." ("While working on this fugue, the composer died."). But that was not true! Because the manuscript was clearly written in Bach's own handwriting, an unsuccessful surgery had Bach completely blinded -later, the same doctor operated on Handel's eye and blinded his as well- and Bach dictated his works to someone else. So this work in the Art of Fugue is almost certainly dated 1748-1749 and is not his last composition.
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| Anonymous scribe's entry of "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit", BWV 668 |
Johannes Brahms
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| Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) in 1895 |
Johannes Brahms' last composition was the end of "Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122", "O Welt ich muss dich lassen", meaning "O world I must leave thee" in English. They were written in the summer of 1896, just after Clara Schumann's death in May. Despite some opposing views, Brahms stated that he did not prepare these works for publication and wrote them for personal purposes. These choral preludes were found on Brahms's desk and were published posthumously in 1902.
At the time of writing this work, Brahms had liver cancer and his cancer was in an advanced stage. Moreover, many of her close friends had died, and Clara Schumann, who was very important to Brahms, had passed away. Brahms took the wrong train and spent two days trying to get to Frankfurt by changing trains, Brahms arrived just in time to throw a handful of earth into Clara's coffin. His poor health got worse.
These chorales, though wordless, are associated with the Lutheran hymns by their titles. Brahms was an atheist, although he was sometimes prone to agnosticism. But his knowledge of religion was very high and he composed many works based on religious texts. Like Vier ernste Gesänge, which he composed in 1896, or Ein deutsches Requiem.
English translation of the text on which Brahms' last work 'O Welt ich muss dich lassen' is based:
O world, I now must leave thee,
And go my lonely journey
To my eternal home.
I faithfully and humbly
Commit my soul and body
unto the Lord’s all-loving hands.
Robert Schumann
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| Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) - in 1850 |
Theme and Variations in E-flat major for piano, more commonly known as Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations), was Robert Schumann's last composition. This period of Schumann is tragic, it was written just before he wanted to be taken to a mental hospital -lunatic asylum- and attempted suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the Rhine River the next day. After surviving the suicide attempt, he continued to work on it. The next day, he completed the work and sent the manuscript to his wife, Clara. Robert Schumann, whose mental health deteriorated, first, there were pains that bothered her ear very much, then auditory hallucinations followed, in February 1854 and claimed that Franz Schubert or Felix Mendelssohn had dictated a melody to him. The main theme of the piece is this melody and in variations, Schumann obsessively repeats this theme almost unchanged.
Schumann's metal health had always been fragile and volatile. In the 1830s he suffered from major depression and even contemplated suicide several times. But each time he got better and his music wasn't affected much. In the 1840s, some nervous breakdowns followed. In the 1850s, Schumann's mental health spiraled out of control and never recovered. Schumann was also prone to depression due to hereditary reasons. Schumann's parents also had a history of depression, and his father, August, died of a nervous breakdown. Uncertainty, but possibly Robert's sister, Emilie, had also committed suicide. Mental illnesses were also seen in Robert's sons. Schumann probably contracted syphilis in his youth. In the tertiary stage, the brain may be severely affected resulting in madness.
Geistervariationen isn't a bad composition, but due to Schumann's deteriorating mental health, it's not as remarkable as his earlier work. This work was first published in 1939 because Clara Schumann kept it until her death.
Felix Mendelssohn
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| Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 - 1847) in 1846 |
During the summer of 1847, Felix Mendelssohn wrote his F minor Quartet op. 80 and it was the last major piece he completed before he died two months later, on 4 November 1847. There was an oratorio like Christus, which he worked on from 1846 until his death, but I thought this string quartet would be more appropriate as a final piece, because most of Christus was composed before this work.
This was probably the most dissonant and brutal piece Mendelssohn ever composed. The String Quartet in F minor, is held to have been a requiem for his deceased sister, Fanny Mendelssohn. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel died in Berlin of complications from a stroke suffered while rehearsing one of Felix's cantatas, 'Die erste Walpurgisnacht'. The date was May 14, news reached Felix Mendelssohn a few days later, Mendelssohn's friend and composer Julius Benedict's description of Mendelssohn's reaction to his sister's death, "With a loud, fearful shriek, he fell senseless to the ground."
In general, composers like Mendelssohn do not show their daily emotions in their music. However, Fanny's unexpected death devastated Felix Mendelssohn both mentally and physically. This affected him very badly, he could not even compose for a while and turned to painting and his already poor health got worse. When he returned to composing a few months later, the first thing he did was to compose this work. This view is also expressed in the comprehensive book 'The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn': "Although it is hazardous to link certain works to certain biographical events, the tone of this work- which might well be described as despertate- bears an obvious relationship to the composer's state of mind after Fanny's sudden death on 17 May 1847. 'I feel entirely void and without form, when I try to think about music', the composer wrote on 24 May."
6 months after his sister's death, and 2 months after completing this work, Mendelssohn dies of a stroke, just like his sister.
Gabriel Fauré
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| Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924) in 1922 |
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121 is Faure's only string quartet, and his last composition. Faure finished this work on September 11, 1924, less than two months before his death. The 79-year-old composer knew that it was probably his last work and he probably conceived it as a profound farewell to life.
Faure, whose health and hearing deteriorated, retired before he began composing this piece. His hearing was really badly impaired, for example, they offered Faure to play this String quartet in his room, but he refused due to a problem with his ear: "No! No! I would only hear a terrible noise!" Faure was depressed by his illness and hearing problems, withdrawing into his shell, awaiting death. But working on string quartets gave him a boost of life, Faure's son explains: "He placed his manuscript paper on the table and quietly started on the finale of his String Quartet. He was no longer strong enough to walk. . . He was happy with his work and was full a kind of inner energy which entirely revived him." Faure made a sudden decision to compose this string quartet and worked on it so meticulously that it would take a year to compose.
This work was in many ways a challenge for Faure. All his life he avoided composing a string quartet on the grounds that it was too difficult, and he tried it in the last days of his life. Fauré states that the quartets of Beethoven should cause any man attempting the string quartet “I’ve started a Quartet for strings, without piano. It’s a medium in which Beethoven was particularly active, which is enough to give all those people who are not Beethoven the jitters! Saint-Saëns was always afraid, and only attempted (the string quartet) towards the end of his life. He did not succeed as he did in other kinds of composition. So you can well imagine that I am frightened too." Faure admitted that he had difficulty and spent hours working on the piece: 'As I moved on towards the conclusion, I increased my hours of work and I'm paying for it with a little tiredness. I can scarcely manage to write a few lines'. Despite these 'justified' fears, Faure composed a masterpiece.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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| Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) in 1823 |
The last project Ludwig van Beethoven was able to complete was string quartets. Honestly, it makes more sense to say this whole project, rather than showing a single piece of work within the scope of "last work". But we can still speak of two specific "last" works. Beethoven's last major work in this project was the 16th string quartet, but the last thing he worked on was the substitute final movement of the thirteenth quartet, which replaced Große Fuge. Große Fuge was difficult to both play and listen to at that time, so a new finale was requested for the 13th string quartet and the Grobe fugue was published as a separate composition. After writing a new finale for the 13th String quartet, he went through a long illness that resulted in his death. In fact, there were some things Beethoven wrote afterwards, but all remained sketchy.
When Beethoven began writing his last string quartets, he fell ill and feared that the disease might be fatal. In addition, his deafness and being away from his friends and family also had an impact on his mood during this period. When he seemed to recover for a while, he composed the long third movement of his 15th string quartet and gave the movement the following title: "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart" ("Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode"). But the disease would relapse and cause Beethoven's death.
The late string quartet is undoubtedly one of his most important works. Initially, Beethoven had planned to spend only a few weeks on each quartet, but would then take 6 months to finish a single string quartet. For his 14th String quartet he would say: "A new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before". Many composers such as Schubert, Wagner, Faure, Stravinsky would also refer to these last period string quartets as Beethoven's masterpieces.
Franz Schubert
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| Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) in 1827 |
Franz Schubert had composed many great works in his last months. 6 weeks before his death, on October 2 (1828), Schubert wrote to a music publisher: ‘Among other things, I have composed three sonatas for piano solo, which I should like to dedicate to Hummel. I have also set several poems by Heine of Hamburg, which went down extraordinarily well here, and finally have completed a Quintet for 2 violins, 1 viola and 2 violoncellos. I have played the sonatas in several places, to much applause, but the Quintet will only be tried out in the coming days. If any of these compositions are perhaps suitable for you, let me know.’ He could not see that these works were published, but each work is in the repertoire today, the works mentioned in the letter were: Songs from Rellstab and Heine poems (They will later be referred to as "Schwanengesang"), last piano sonatas (D 958, 959, 960) and String Quintet.
But Schubert composed a few more compositions after this letter: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" and "Die Taubenpost" ("The pigeon post"). Die Taubenpost, a small lied, which was probably the last song and last composition composed by the great lied composer. Schubert may give the impression of despairing about life in the slower parts of his last compositions, but despite his illness, we probably see in this song that the composer didn't lose hope before he died. Nevertheless, it is not very reliable to make biographical inferences to Schubert's compositions.
Undoubtedly, Franz Schubert's golden age was last two year of his life, and many of his great compositions belong to this time: Winterreise, String Quintet, Symphony No. 9, Schwanengesang, last piano sonatas (D 958, 959, 960), Fantasia in F minor, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, Piano Trio No. 1 and 2 etc. All of them are among Schubert's most precious compositions.
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