Cecilia Bartoli: The complete 4 canzonas D. 688“ (Schubert)

4 canzonas (D. 688): I. Non t’accostar all’urna 00:00 II. Guarda, che bianca luna 03:23 III. Da quel sembiante appresi 06:30 IV. Mio ben ricordati 08:16 Schubert, Franz (1797-1828) -composer Cecilia Bartoli -mezzosoprano Andreas Schiff -piano Scores: Available for free at For more of Austrian songs check out my “The art of Austrian song: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler, Berg“ playlist. Description by James Leonas: Unlike most of Schubert’s early Italian songs, his Vier Canzonen of January 1820 were not written as vocal exercises but as full-fledged songs. Indeed, his music for Jacobo Vitorelli’s Guarda, che biance lune (Look, how bright the moonbeams are, D. 688/2) is virtually an Italian art song with a finely spun vocal melody of ravishing beauty. Like the other three of the Vier Canzonen of January 1820, Schubert wrote the music for Jacopo Vittorelli’s Non t’accostar all’ urna (Do not approach the urn) (D. 688/1) as a sort of chamber bel canto aria for soprano with piano accompaniment. With its chastely restrained outer sections surrounding a more passionately extroverted central section, Non t’accostar all’ urna is a superb example of Schubert’s rarely recognized ability to write Italian music. Ten years later, Giuseppe Verdi also set Vittorelli’s text, but in a much more extravagantly emotional style. f the Vier Canzonen (Four Italian art songs) Schubert composed in January 1820, the fourth, Mio ben ricordati (Remember, my beloved, D. 688/4) is by far the finest. Setting a very brief two-verse text by Pietro Metastasio as a strophic song in the unusual key of B flat minor alternating with B flat major, Schubert’s Mio ben ricordati is an ideal fusion of melancholy Italian melodic beauty and passionate German harmonic profundity. After hearing the exquisite loveliness of Mio ben ricordati, one wonders what might have happened if Schubert had lived to continue mining this vein of his genius. In addition to being the composer of the greatest German art songs, Schubert might have become the composer of the greatest Italian art songs as well.