Weekend Concert 2! (Schubert Piano Works Special)

2006/7/28 12:57:43

Schubert is the King of Song -- everyone on earth knows this. In Schubert's art songs, the piano accompaniment plays an extremely important role, and most critically, this role is balanced -- the voice and piano are balanced, unlike the somewhat excessive balance of later composers like Schumann and Wolf. Beethoven and Schubert are the most important bridges from Classical to Romantic music. Beethoven stood in the Classical temple and opened the door to Romanticism, while Schubert pioneered the great road of Romanticism, but carried the light of Classicism.

There's a very popular notion in China that uses the concept of yin and yang to characterize the relationship between Beethoven and Schubert. But looking at Schubert's works from his final period, he was returning to that Classical temple. Because only within the temple of Classicism is it possible to become the king of music. After Classicism, composers -- even one as grand as Wagner -- were merely a group of exiled spirits. They were not and could not be kings.

Green mountains never move, white clouds come and go -- this is the music of Classicism. All human suffering is sublimated under the glory of Classicism. The music that came after only has music -- it has no light. That music can express all of humanity's emotions, but humanity is more than just emotions. Humanity has light. Some later musicians sank further; others looked back but could not return, just as Eden cannot be returned to.

One can say with certainty that had Schubert not abandoned the world before the age of 32, he would surely have stood at the highest point of the Classical temple. In a certain sense, Schubert's music is the last music in human history that carries light. Whether such music will exist again, who knows? But we must be grateful, because the world did have Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert -- music that carries light. And similarly, because there were Homer, Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Shakespeare, and Goethe -- poetry that carries light -- humanity became somewhat worth existing. A humanity that can only eat, drink, defecate, build cannons and airplanes, sell bodies and brains, and chase profit, sex, and power -- might as well have gone the way of the dinosaurs!

Regardless of how far Beethoven and Schubert ventured into Romantic musical forms, their roots were still Classical. Beethoven's piano music mainly broke new ground in sonatas, and the value of Schubert's piano sonatas is increasingly apparent. Schubert is the greatest master of piano sonatas after Beethoven -- this is beyond doubt. But Schubert's value also lies in his pioneering of Romantic piano forms like impromptus and fantasias. What's playing here are his two sets of impromptus and the "Wanderer Fantasy."

The reason I didn't choose his piano sonatas first is that in the sonatas, he was more about returning, whereas in the impromptus and fantasias, he was more about pioneering. We can hear how far he could go while carrying Classical light into the real world -- but no matter how far, that Classical radiance remains. The last piece is the "Military March" for four hands, which can serve as an encore -- a little relaxation.

Please turn off all other background music, otherwise the sounds will overlap.