Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert wrote some six hundred songs during a life of thirty-one years. A choirboy of the imperial chapel in Vienna and a pupil of Salieri, he taught in his father's schoolroom, gave it up, and thereafter lived largely among the friends whose musical evenings became known as Schubertiads. His songs include Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig, and the cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. His instrumental works include the Unfinished and Great C major symphonies, the String Quintet in C, Death and the Maiden, the Trout Quintet, the Wanderer Fantasy and the last three piano sonatas, all three written in his final autumn. The first fully authenticated public performance of the Great C major took place in 1839. He died in Vienna in 1828. He was a pupil of the Vienna Konvikt, where he studied piano, violin and singing, and the First Symphony came when he was sixteen; twelve symphonic projects are known, five of them left unfinished, and not one of them was played in public while he lived. The songs draw on Goethe, Schiller and Heine among other poets, and in his own time it was the chamber music that carried his name.