Overture to Rosamunde, Franz  Schubert

Schubert composed more for the stage than is commonly believed.  There were eight complete operas and operettas all of which flopped, yet he could not resist when offered the opportunity  to compose music for a new fantasy play by Wilhelmine von Chezy in 1823.  Schubert's biographer Maurice J.E. Brown wrote"In the rotting undergrowth  of the Romantic jungle-world there is nothing stranger than this play with its secret passages, princesses brought up by fisher-folk, poisoned letters.and all the rest."  A Viennese reviewer wrote "What a pity that Schubert's wonderfully beautiful music  has not found a worthier subject!"  Rosamunde, Princess of Cypress, closed after only two performances, unfortunately taking Schubert's music with it, but not forever!

In 1867 two enterprising Englishmen, George Grove of dictionary famd and Arthur Sullivan of operetta fame, went to Vienna to uncover  still-neglected manuscripts of Schubert.  After much rummaging in forgotten cupboards and closets, they discovered the original orchestral parts for Rosamunde and some symphonies.  Rosamunde was then introduced to London and had been a Schubert favorite ever since.   Full of the buoyancy that marks his best music, Rosamunde is a reminder that for Schubert, who died at age 31, every piece he wrote was a youthful work.

The Overture was originally written for an earlier play called The Magic Harp, but has survived to this day as the Overture to Rosamunde.  The piece opens with a slow introduction containing a theme of remarkable grace: then the allegro begins with a lilting theme announced by the violins, almost in a whisper.  This is followed by two more typically Schubetian themes with a brief passage in the middle of the Overture to modulate back to the home key.  The three themes return and the work concludes with a lively, vigorous coda.