Before today, I had never heard this composition.
It is now my favorite of all time.
It will remain so for some variable time somewhere between 3 days and 3 months.
Then something else will be my favorite of all time.
More than likely, it will be something by Schubert.
From http://www.fuguemasters.com/schubert.html#Notturno
I called twelve times at Diabelli’s, but I have not yet received one penny; but I shall never give them a song again."
He sold Diabelli the copyright of twelve volumes of his songs for 800 florins; while on one single song, the "Wanderer", Diabelli is said to have made a profit of no less than 36,000 florins."
From The Book of Musical Anecdotes by Norman Lebrecht, The Free Press, 1985
This lovely, though brief, work for Piano Trio was published posthumously by Diabelli and Co. It was probably composed during the last year of Schubert’s life. There is speculation that it was originally intended to serve as the second movement of the B Flat Major Piano Trio (D.899). The second movement of this Trio, Andante, is in the same key as the Notturno.
The title "Notturno" was the publisher’s, not Schubert’s.
