Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include the art songs "Erlkönig", "Gretchen am Spinnrade", and "Ave Maria"; the Trout Quintet; the Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished); the Symphony No. 9 in C major (Great); the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor ; the String Quintet in C major; the Impromptus for solo piano; the last three piano sonatas; the Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands; the opera Fierrabras; the incidental music to the play Rosamunde; and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise and Schwanengesang.
Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D 957, is a collection of 14 songs written by Franz Schubert at the end of his life and published posthumously:
- Liebesbotschaft (text: Ludwig Rellstab)
- Kriegers Ahnung (Rellstab)
- Frühlingssehnsucht (Rellstab)
- Ständchen (Rellstab)
- Aufenthalt (Rellstab)
- In der Ferne (Rellstab)
- Abschied (Rellstab)
- Der Atlas (Heinrich Heine)
- Ihr Bild (Heine)
- Das Fischermädchen (Heine)
- Die Stadt (Heine)
- Am Meer (Heine)
- Der Doppelgänger (Heine)
- Die Taubenpost (alternative: D 965a) (Johann Gabriel Seidl)
"Der Doppelgänger" is one of the six songs from Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang that sets words by Heinrich Heine for piano and tenor voice. It was written in 1828, the year of Schubert's death.
Marta Eggerth was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Filme. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records label owned by Carl Lindström AG.
Julius von Borsody was an Austrian film architect and one of the most employed set designers in the Austrian and German cinemas of the late silent and early sound film periods. His younger brother, Eduard von Borsody, was a film director in Austria and Germany. He is also the great-uncle of German actress Suzanne von Borsody.
Wiener Film is an Austrian film genre, consisting of a combination of comedy, romance and melodrama in a historical setting, mostly, and typically, the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Wiener Film genre was in production between the 1920s and the 1950s, with the 1930s as its high period.
Unfinished Symphony is a 1934 British-Austrian musical drama film directed by Willi Forst and Anthony Asquith and starring Mártha Eggerth, Helen Chandler, Hans Jaray, and Ronald Squire. The film is based on the story of Franz Schubert who, in the 1820s left his symphony unfinished after losing the love of his life. The film's alternate German-language version was called Gently My Songs Entreat. This title refers to the first line of the Lied "Ständchen" (Serenade) from Schubert's collection Schwanengesang, "the most famous serenade in the world", performed by Mártha Eggerth in the film.
Luise Ullrich was an Austrian actress.
Angeli senza paradiso is a 1970 Italian musicarello romance film directed by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti. It is an unofficial remake of the 1933 film Gently My Songs Entreat by Willi Forst.
Homecoming to Happiness is a 1933 German comedy film directed by Carl Boese and starring Luise Ullrich, Paul Hörbiger and Heinz Rühmann. It was shot at the EFA Studios in Berlin's Halensee area. The film's sets were designed by the art director Franz Schroedter. Alessandro Blasetti directed an Italian remake L'impiegata di papà in 1934.
Suburban Cabaret is a 1935 Austrian musical drama film directed by Werner Hochbaum and starring Mathias Wieman, Luise Ullrich and Oskar Sima. It was shot at the Sievering Studios in Vienna. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Kunz. It is based on the play Der Gemeine by Felix Salten.
Franz Schubert's best known song cycles, like Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are based on separate poems with a common theme and narrative. Other song cycles are based on consecutive excerpts of the same literary work: Schubert's "Ave Maria" is part of such a song cycle based on excerpts of the same poem, in this case by Walter Scott.
Hans Jaray (1906–1990) was an Austrian actor and playwright. He also wrote and directed several television films. Jaray starred as a leading man in a number of 1930s films, such as the Schubert biopic Gently My Songs Entreat (1933). Jaray emigrated to the United States following the Anchluss of 1938, but returned to Vienna after the Second World War.
My Heart Calls You is a 1934 German musical film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Jan Kiepura, Mártha Eggerth and Paul Kemp. Separate English-language and French-language versions were made, both also directed by Gallone.
"Ständchen", D 889, is a lied for solo voice and piano by Franz Schubert, composed in July 1826 in the village of Währing. It is a setting of the "Song" in Act 2, scene 3 of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The song was first published by Anton Diabelli in 1830, two years after the composer's death. The song in its original form is relatively short, and two further verses by Friedrich Reil were added to Diabelli's second edition of 1832.
"Der Mondabend", WAB 200, is a lied composed by Anton Bruckner in c. 1850 for Aloisia Bogner.
Franz Schubert composed a number of works known as Ständchen, meaning serenade.
"Ständchen", D 920/921 is a part song for alto solo, chorus & piano, by Franz Schubert. He composed it in Vienna in July 1827, setting words by Franz Grillparzer.
Her Highness Dances the Waltz is a 1935 German-language Czech musical comedy film directed by Max Neufeld and starring Irén Ágay, André Mattoni and Hans Homma.
