Ständchen (OEK critical edition)

Ludwig Rellstab (G)

Jacques Offenbach's serenade Ständchen (Serenade) from 1850 is based on Franz Schubert's settings of a series of poems by Ludwig Rellstab from 1827. Rellstab had visited Vienna in the spring of 1825 to meet Beethoven. During this visit, he also met Schubert, who immediately became interested in the poems, which were published later that same year. The brilliant orchestrator Jacques Offenbach makes extensive use of the timbres of the woodwind and brass instruments in his Ständchen, which often engage in solo dialogues with the vocal line.