Some time before Beethoven composed his last symphony, Shubert had set stanzas from Schiller's "Ode to Joy" to music in his own Lied. I heard it just now on a Hyperion CD (CDJ33016) of Thomas Allen singing Schubert songs to texts by Schiller accompanied by Graham Johnson, which I had bought last week in a sale at Tower Records. I thought it a wonderful setting. The CD also contains, among other Lieder, Schubert's setting of "Die Buergschaft" ("The Pledge", the Damon and Pythias story), almost a mini-opera with one voice singing the various parts and that of the narrator, lasting 16 and a half minutes. I have Fischer-Dieskau singing it on a DG lp but have never found it recorded on a separate CD before (I've not bought the complete FiDi Schubert set) and its inclusion on this CD has contributed further to making it a valuable addition to my collection. Walter Meyer