Franz Schubert's song cycle Die schöne Müllerin makes enormous demands not only on the performers but also on its audience, a factor that shaped the early performance history of the work. In this article, the pioneering complete performances of Die schöne Müllerin by the baritone Julius Stockhausen (1826–1906) will be explored, as well as the responses of his audiences, collaborators, and critics. The circumstances surrounding the first complete performance in Vienna's Musikverein on 4 May 1856, more than three decades after the cycle was composed in 1823, will be traced. A survey of subsequent performances reveal two things: within Stockhausen's concert career at least, it was no foregone conclusion that the complete cycle should always be performed; and a performance of the “complete cycle” meant many different things in his day. Stockhausen's artistic idealism jostled against the practical forces that necessarily influenced his approach to recital programming, leading to a multifaceted, untidy performance history for this cycle.
Skip Nav Destination
Close
Article navigation
Spring 2018
Research Article|
March 01 2018
Julius Stockhausen's Early Performances of Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin
Natasha Loges
Natasha Loges
Natasha Loges is a pianist and head of postgraduate programmes at the Royal College of Music, London. She is author of Brahms and His Poets (Boydell, 2017) and co-editor of Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (Cambridge, 2014). Her articles have appeared in Music & Letters and Nineteenth-Century Music Review. She broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3 and writes for BBC Music Magazine.
Search for other works by this author on:
19th-Century Music (2018) 41 (3): 206–224.
Citation
Natasha Loges; Julius Stockhausen's Early Performances of Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. 19th-Century Music 1 March 2018; 41 (3): 206–224. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ncm.2018.41.3.206
Download citation file:
Close
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.