Schubert made remarkable use of this facility and the lieder (songs set to music) composed by him, chiefly for the opera, run into hundreds, which have been grouped according to the difficulty of rendition. Schubert died when he was only 33 and his last cycle of work, which has been titled Schwanengesang, meaning `swansong,' was left relatively unexplored.

In association with Fundacao Oriente, Lisbon Institute-Camoes, the Portuguese Cultural Centre and the Pune-based Indian Maritime Foundation, the concert Schwanengesang was presented at The Blue Diamond on March 27 by Adriano Jordao (pianist) and Jose Oliviera Lopes (bass-baritone). The duo have been commemorating Schubert's 200th birth anniversary with world-wide concerts and made a stop for a musical evening in Pune.

Lopes sang in the original German, accompanied by Jordao on the piano, both combining to make an excellent team. ``Schubert composed music which was not just instrumental; the contribution of the literary was equally important. Chamber music was in vogue in Germany then and his style corresponded to this musical development,'' says Jordao.

Since the early 19th century is classified as the period of Romanticism, the songs of the Schwanengesang reflect the passion, sentimentality and deep emotion of Romanticism. ``The early years of the century were intellectually alive and explosive,'' continues Jordao. At the concert, the duo performed 14 songs, which covered a range of musical variations.

From light, frothy melodies like Liebesbotschaft (Love's Message) and Das Fischermadchen (The Fishermaiden) to the more soulful, soft songs like Der Atlas (Atlas) and Standchen (Serenade) or then the highly dramatic Der Doppelganger (Phantom's Double), the duo complemented each other perfectly.

The romantic lyrics were also true to the style of that period. Whether in Fruhlingssehnsucht's (Longing in Springtime) ``restless yearning, dreaming heart, shall it always be only tears, guilt and pain?'' Or in Der Atlas's plaintive ``I am a doomed Atlas, carrying the world of pain on my shoulders.''

German composers are apparently popular in Portugal, for both their classicism and ``their devotion to experimentation and a strong and free school of music,'' explains Jordao. As far as the music trends of today are concerned, they say, ``The future of Western classical music looks brilliant, because new composers are experimenting with the old again.'' And Indian classical music also gets much appreciation for its variety. ``Indian music has tones which Western classical music does not use, and we are fascinated by the amount of fusion experimentation here,'' they say.

All in all, a befitting cultural alliance between Portugal and India.