This Week's Free Download

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Matthias Goerne’s recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang, with pianist Christoph Eschenbach was the BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song choice earlier this summer. For this week’s free download we’re offering the beautiful final song of the cycle, ‘Die Taubenpost’ from this recording on the Harmonia Mundi label

The song uses the image of a carrier pigeon to express the singer’s yearning for his loved one: ‘I have a carrier pigeon in my pay/ That is devoted and true;/ She never stops short of her goal,/ And never flies too far.’

Writing in the July issue of the magazine, our critic Hilary Finch wrote ‘Both Goerne and Eschenbach are on top form in what is an outstanding contribution to the Schwanengesang catalogue’