Schubert lived a tragically short and often unhappy life. He died at the age of 31, one year after the death of Beethoven (who was 26 years his senior). Like Beethoven, Schubert blazed a trail with musical ideas that would change the 19th century. As with Mozart, we have to wonder what he might have accomplished had he lived longer.

Whereas Beethoven’s legacy tends to emphasize his symphonies, Schubert is remembered primarily for his Lieder (songs).

Although his talent as a composer was widely recognized, he had only one major concert success near the end of his life. His operas, so important to a composer’s success at the time, were mostly failures. But Johann Michael Vogl, one of the most renown singers of the time, championed Schubert’s music and inspired many of his songs.

A contemporary singer, Ian Bostridge (whom you will encounter on this page), notes that Schubert was the first of the great canonical composers to have made his living solely in the marketplace without a patron, a position in a court or church, or a musical sinecure of any sort.