Schubert spent two weeks in Graz in late summer 1827, but apparently his hostess, Maria Pachler, made an enormous impression on him. Not only did he thank her by letter in warm terms—"cordiality" and "openness"—but he actually set a number of poems specifically for her, among them "Heimliches Lieben" (Secret Love) (D. 922) on a poem by Karoline Klenke. Although criticized by scholars for being sentimental salon music, for its cloying accompaniment, and its coy melody, surely this criticism misses the point of the song. While it is true that the piano accompaniment's ceaseless triplets and lushly embellished melody could be sentimentally played, so too could Schubert's G flat major Impromptu and no critic would dare hold that against the Impromptu. And while it is true that the achingly chromatic vocal melody could be maudlinly sung and the voluptuous chromatic harmony could be played as mawkishly, it could also be sensuously sung and played as the words suggest: "When your lips touch me, desire all but bears away my soul." Although doubtless Schubert's setting was a secret message to Frau Pachler, there is more than the suggestion in her choice of text—and it was she who choose the poem—that signified a secret message from the hostess to someone other than her husband. And Schubert's song, in perhaps a sentimental or sensual way, convincingly communicates that message.

© All Music Guide