Sleep With Your Glasses On

Half-watching an episode of "Classical Destinations" the other night (a show on PBS hosted by Simon Callow and featuring various locations around Europe that presumably served as inspirations to the great Western composers), I was struck by a couple of things about Franz Schubert. He was an astonishingly prolific composer, writing nine symphonies (a la Beethoven), several operas, a bunch of piano concerti, and over 600 songs. According to legend, he slept with his glasses on, so that he could begin composing again as soon as he woke up in the morning. Apocryphal to be sure, but probably not without reason: he worked hard all his life, yet still remained basically penniless.

Schubert also died at the revoltingly young age of 31, which is less than twice my age. Mozart, by contrast, was 35.

Here's Hilary Hahn doing a rockin' solo version of Schubert's song "Der Erlkönig" (The Elf-king). It's even cooler if you've heard the original piano/voice version, which I recommend you do.



(More posts will come bit by bit as I try to get back in the swing of blogging. It's been a ridiculously busy summer.)