F. Schubert. "Schwanengesang", first edition, second issue, c.1829

Franz Schubert

Schwanengesang. In Musik gesetzt für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte von Franz Schubert Letztes Werk I.^te [...IIte] Abtheilung [D.957], Vienna: bey Tobias Haslinger, Musikverleger, im Hause der ersten österr: Sparkasse am Graben No.572, [c.1829]

FIRST EDITION, second issue, in two volumes, 89 pages, oblong folio, engraved titles and music, plate numbers 5370 & T.H.5371-5384, without vignette or subscribers’ list, list of contents on verso of title, modern blue calf-backed boards, a little spotting, the second volume with generous margins 

Schubert’s last song-cycle is generally believed to have been assembled by the publisher from previously unpublished songs. The fourteen collected here are settings by Rellstab (nos.1-7), Heine (8-13) and Seidl (14). Perhaps the most famous of the fourteen songs is Ständchen ("Leise flehen meine Lieder"). The last song is said to have been completed on the day before Schubert died.

This copy is from the first edition as described by Deutsch, p.616, though it is not one of the subscribers' copies. As it still retains the original price called for by Fuld ("f3--C.M./F.2"), it was probably issued not much later than them.

LITERATURE:

Fuld, pp.491-492

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 29 May 1992 (lot 648)