The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert Javier ... - Ethesis

1819-1823
of Schubert’s music in the 1820s was contemporary Viennese theatrical taste, which
ranged from sentimental light operas to spectacular Italian ones.
Italian and Italianate opera were greatly in demand (and therefore highly
profitable) in the city’s theatres. The first Rossini production seen in the Imperial
capital was Tancredi in 1816 and, by 1821, the Viennese had coined a term for this
phenomenon: der Rossini Rummel (‘the Rossini craze’). As mentioned in the previous
chapter, Vienna’s Hofoper season in 1819 included thirty-three performances of works
by Rossini. This was only surpassed by Mozart; but otherwise, the works of Viennese
composers were under-represented. 1 The Viennese fever for Italian opera and Italian
musicians, especially for Rossini, constitutes a crucial element in the understanding of
Schubert’s output and musical efforts during the last decade of his life. Nowadays, the
importance of these contemporary factors is often overlooked, but it is noteworthy that
many music historians describe those years in Vienna as ‘The Age of Beethoven and
Rossini [italics are mine].’ Incidentally, it is from May 19, 1819, that we have Schubert’s
most revealing comments about Italian music. Concerning Rossini and a recent
production of his Otello, Schubert said that ‘you cannot deny him extraordinary genius.
The orchestration is most original at times, and the vocal parts too occasionally, except
for the usual Italian gallopades and several reminiscences of “Tancredi.”’ 2 The truth is
that Schubert’s operas often clearly reflect the contemporary musical world in which he
lived, and it was the work of his contemporaries that helped him to shape his own. We
have already mentioned the Viennese classics and Hummel as models for Schubert’s
instrumental works, but there are also extant examples in opera. Elizabeth McKay has
pointed out some strong similarities: for example, between Schubert’s Singspiel Die
Freunde von Salamanka (D326, 1815) and Joseph Weigl’s Singspiele Das Waisenhaus
(The Orphanage, 1808) as well as his Die Schweizerfamilie (The Swiss Family, 1809),
much in vogue at that time in Vienna; or between Adalbert Gyrowetz’s Der Augenarzt
(The Ophthalmologist, 1811) and Schubert’s Fernando (D220, 1815), which is largely an
adaptation of the musical ideas and libretto (including even the names of characters)
from Gyrowetz’s extremely popular work. 3 Further examples of plot resemblances and
also musical procedures can be found in operas such as Alfonso und Estrella (1821-2),
which shows Schubert’s ‘knowledge and assimilation of the operatic methods of
Rossini,’ 4 and Fierabras (1823), ‘written with a Viennese audience very much in mind,
an audience enthusiastic about [Rossini’s] Tancredi and [Weber’s] Der Freischütz.’ 5
Let us now return to 1819. As we have noted, as soon as Schubert came back
from Zseliz at the end of 1818, he moved in with his friend the poet Johann Mayrhofer.
Thirsty for city life and avid for intellectual challenges, 6 he was presumably happy to be
back in Vienna. Interestingly, he now became interested in poets and poetry of a
different kind. Probably influenced by Mayrhofer and the ‘Bildung circle’ (a reading
group which Schubert had belonged to since 1814 and whose meetings would eventually
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