Sunday 22^nd February 2026

3.00 pm

Runtime: 120 minutes

Colyer-Fergusson Hall

The Gulbenkian Arts Centre

University of Kent

Matthew Rose - bass

Anna Tilbrook - piano

Matthew Rose continues to develop his wonderful relationship with Canterbury in a recital of Brahms' and Schubert's last lieder including the Schubert's posthumously published collection of songs known as "Schwanengesang" - he will be accompanied by one of the Music Club's favourite pianists Anna Tilbrook.

Programme and Notes

(Full texts will be in the printed concert programmes)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
"Vier ernste Gesänge" ("Four serious songs") op.121

Composed in 1896 near the end of his life, these were the last Brahms’ works published in his lifetime. Inevitably reflections on death take their place in the natural order of things. The song cycle’s prophetic words, matched to music of solace, are drawn from the Lutheran Bible. The first three songs deal with death and the transience of life, whilst the fourth has a more positive theme of faith, hope and charity. 

No. 1: "Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh" ("For the fate of the sons of men") - Text: Ecclesiastes 3:19–22.
No. 2: "Ich wandte mich, und sahe an alle" ("So I returned, and did consider") - Text: Ecclesiastes 4:1–3.
No. 3: "O Tod, wie bitter bist du" ("O death, how bitter you are") - Text: Book of Sirach 41:1–2.
No. 4: "Wenn ich mit Menschen- und mit Engelszungen" ("Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels") - Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1–3, 12–13.

Interval

Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)

Schwanengesang D.957 (“Swan Song”)

Named by its first publisher, Tobias Haslinger, who presumably wished to present it as Schubert's last testament, Schwanengesang unusually for Schubert includes settings of more than one poet. Seven texts by Ludwig Rellstab (1799–1860) are followed by six by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856); inclusion of the last song, to words by Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804–1875), may or may not reflect Schubert's wishes. In any case, all 14 songs were composed in 1828 and published in 1829, a few months after the composer's death. The Rellstab and Heine settings were copied in a single sitting on consecutive pages of the manuscript in Schubert's hand, and Seidl's Die Taubenpost is considered to be Schubert's last Lied — thus the basis for Haslinger's sequence, one accepted by posterity together with his conceit that a cycle exists at all! The title Schwanengesang is not the composer's but all the song titles are; Heine did not even name his poems.  

Poems by Ludwig Rellstab

1.   Liebesbotschaft (“Message of Love”) in G major

      The singer invites a stream to convey a message to his beloved.

2.   Kriegers Ahnung ("Warrior's foreboding") in C minor

A soldier encamped with his comrades sings of how he misses his beloved, and how he fears the prospect of dying, or losing his courage, in battle.

3.   Frühlingssehnsucht ("Longing in spring time") in B-flat major

The singer is surrounded by natural beauty but feels melancholy and unsatisfied until his beloved can "free the spring in my breast"

4.    Ständchen ("Serenade") in D minor / D major

The singer exhorts his lover to make him happy.

5.    Aufenthalt ("Resting place") in E minor

The singer is consumed by anguish for reasons we aren't told, and likens his feelings to the river, forest and mountain around him.

6.    In der Ferne ("In the distance") in B minor

The singer has fled his home, broken-hearted, and complains of having no friends and no home; he asks the breezes and sunbeams to convey his greetings to the one who broke his heart.

7.    Abschied ("Farewell") in E-flat major

The singer bids a cheery but determined farewell to a town where he has been happy but which he must now leave.

Poems by Heinrich Heine

8.    Der Atlas (“The Atlas”) in G minor

Having wished for an eternity of either happiness or wretchedness, the narrator blames himself for the weight of sorrow that he now bears, like the giant Atlas.

9.    Ihr Bild ("Her image") in B-flat minor

The singer imagines that the beloved's portrait favoured him with a smile and a tear; but alas, he has lost her.

10.  Das Fischermädchen ("The fisher-maiden") in A-flat major

The singer tries to sweet-talk a fishing girl into a romantic encounter, drawing parallels between his heart and the sea.

11.  Die Stadt ("The city") in C minor

The singer is in a boat rowing towards the city where he lost the one he loved; it comes foggily into view.

12.  Am Meer ("By the sea") in C major

The singer tells of how he and his beloved met in silence beside the sea, and she wept; since then he has been consumed with longing — she has poisoned him with her tears.

13.  Der Doppelgänger ("The double") in B minor

The singer looks at the house where his beloved once lived, and is horrified to see someone standing outside it in torment — it is, or appears to be, none other than himself, aping his misery of long ago.

Poem by Johann Gabriel Seidl

14.  Die Taubenpost ("The pigeon post") in G major

The singer declares that he has a carrier pigeon whose name is "Longing".

Notes and song details on Schubert’s Schwanengesang are from Wikipedia 

Tickets from

Gulbenkian Box Office

Full: £25

Students & Under 25s: FREE