Franz Schubert is the first great composer of the Romantic era and an unsurpassed master of the song (Lied). In his short life he created over 600 art songs, raising the union of poetry and music to unprecedented heights — his cycles “Die schöne Müllerin” and “Winterreise” remain summits of the genre.
But Schubert was not only a song composer: he wrote seven complete symphonies as well as the famous “Unfinished”, string quartets, piano sonatas, masses, and the “Trout” Quintet. His melodic gift was inexhaustible, and his music combines Classical clarity with deeply Romantic sincerity and lyricism. Schubert died at 31, appreciated in his lifetime only by a small circle of admirers in Vienna — and only after his death did the world realise it had lost one of the greatest geniuses in the history of music.
