Composed 1815; 4 minutes

Schubert was 18 when he composed Erlkönig (Erlking) and, though published in 1821 as his official 
Op. 1, it was already his 328^th composition according to Otto Erich Deutsch’s chronological catalog. It quickly became his most famous work. One of the greatest 19^th-century lieder, Erlkönig forms a perfect union of poet (Goethe) and composer. The ballad grips the listener with urgency and immediacy as galloping octaves drive the music relentlessly toward its chilling conclusion.

Ferdinand Schubert, the composer’s older brother, was the first to orchestrate Schubert’s songs, including Erlkönig, beginning in the early 1830s. Today’s orchestration is by Delirium Musicum’s imaginative composer-in-residence Gianluca Bersanetti (b. Rome, Italy, 1964).