Anders Muskens is a BLEMF Emerging Artist. Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-1791) was a German composer, organist, keyboardist, music theorist, poet, journalist, and dedicated activist. Praised by Charles Burney who heard him play organ in Ludwigsburg, Schubart is mostly remembered today as the author of the poem "Die Forelle," which Franz Schubert set to music years later. In an era before true freedom of speech in Germany, Schubart’s published attack on the improprieties of the Jesuits led to his arrest and decade-long confinement in the severe conditions of the Hohenasperg Fortress. During his incarceration, Schubart authored the important treatise "Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst,” (“Ideas for an Aesthetics of Musical Art”) and wrote music and poetry, much of which in the "Sturm und Drang" style. For his political and religious views, Schubart was persecuted: exiled from society, and confined to a cell within a mighty, cold, stone fortress. Yet, in the prevailing spirit of the 18th century, his captors showed a level of Enlightenment leniency and allowed him to publish his art despite his status as a convicted prisoner. This concert was recorded from within the very cell at the Hohenasperg Fortress where Schubart spent a decade, and wrote much of the music we will hear performed.

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739 – 1791)

Keyboard Sonata No. 1 in D major from “Etwas für Clavier und Gesang.“ Winterthur (1783)

Allegro Andante cantabile Presto Tempo di menuetto

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739 – 1791) -Keyboard Sonata No. 2 in C major from “Etwas für Clavier und Gesang.“ Winterthur (1783)

Allegro Andante Presto Rondo

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739 – 1791) -Keyboard Sonata No. 3 in D major from “Etwas für Clavier und Gesang.“ Winterthur (1783)

Allegro Andante grazioso Presto

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739 – 1791) -13 Variations on a Theme in B flat (manuscript, 1790 in the Badische Landesbibliothe Karlsruhe)