Prague Sinfonia
Christian Benda (dir.)
Revered for his incomparable Lieder, Franz Schubert was also an avid operagoer who yearned, largely in vain, for success as a composer of stage works.
This disc features several of his less familiar early overtures, from Der Spiegelritter and Der Teufel als Hydraulicus (circa 1811/2) and his first completed opera, the Medieval fantasy Des Teufels Lustschloss (1813/4), to the Overture in B flat (1816).
It is hard to believe that such accomplished and effective music was the work of a teenager.
