The Banks of the Spree near Stralau

On a stretch of the Spree popular with river trippers from Berlin, two horn players are ferried across after a day's festivities. At evening, their work, like the fishing on the river, is done, and their passage home becomes an image of human life, a crossing with connotations of death, leading to a mysterious end.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes): Franz Schubert: Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen (To Be Sung On The Water), Franz Liszt's transcription