The value of the Naxos label's Schubert-Lied-Edition, which here reaches its 34th volume, has never been clearer than with the several volumes devoted to the composer's part-songs, for four male voices. Some of these have become popular among male choirs and were even staples of community German music in the U.S., but others waited for years after
Schubert's death for publication and never really gained a foothold in the repertoire. Among these oddities one finds some gems, and several have shown up on each of the Naxos part-song albums. One here is Die Advokaten, D. 37 (The Lawyers), a comic vocal trio dating from
Schubert's student years. It is apparently based on a work by composer Anton Fischer, although it's not really made clear to what extent. In any event, the piece, which concerns a pair of lawyers dunning a delinquent customer for a bill (the customer asks for credit for bribes already paid), could serve as an ideal curtain-raiser for Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury, which itself often serves as a curtain-raiser for something else. A shorter work, also little known but in a serious vein, is the Bergknappenlied, D. 268, a prayer of miners going into the ground that moves from confidence to uncertain murky depths in the keyboard part at the end of its minute and 10 seconds. As elsewhere in the series, listeners may be surprised by the range of expression in these songs, which run from drinking pieces to a full-blown setting of a poem from
Goethe's West-Östlicher Divan. The singers move easily among these types, delivering performances that react naturally to the text, and the work of the two high tenors as well as accompanist
Ulrich Eisenlohr stands out. Notes are in English and German, but Naxos here again goes on the cheap and refers the listener to a .pdf file for the song texts themselves; these appear in English and German, as well. Highly recommended for any fan of
Schubert or the social music of the 19th century.