Right now, I’m reading a biography of Schubert. He’s one of the three: you’ve got Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. They have their stones together in a cemetery in Vienna. That’s Beethoven on the right, Schubert on the left and a memorial of Mozart in the center. Mozart’s body was thrown in a common grave and never recovered, hence the memorial.
My music teacher in high school, the honorable Mr. Peruez, loved Schubert. That was his favorite composer, which was strange for us, people in the know since we swore only by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and the like. We thought that our beloved teacher was a bit odd.
Now, as I am approaching in age the very shores he was in back then, I understand better his fascination for that author. Schubert, you see, is a composer that is always characterized as having died too young, as someone who had still a lot to say. It’s because he dpassed at 31 years old, which is 4 years younger than Mozart. That is not exactly the club of the musicians who left us at 27 years old like Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendricks or Janis Joplin, but it’s still very young.
You would think that since he passed at an early age, his output would be modest. Not at all! He left a mammoth amount of music, as a matter of fact more than a 1000 compositions! It is Gargantuan. 9 symphonies, one of them incomplete. A ton of chamber music like quartets, quintets, etc. 11 operas, two of which got staged but none achieved posterity. But all of that is nothing compared to his magnum opus: the lieders (A lieder is a song). He composed in his short life, are you ready? more than six hundred songs. Some of them are grouped in cycles, the most famous one of them being Winterers (I won’t write it in German fearing that your mailbox would reject my email, already with the name of my teacher, we’re taking big risks here).
So, I am reading about Schubert, the sweet Schubert, the magical Schubert. I am listening to his music as I progress in the book. I also jump to a piece randomly as it strike my fancy like his fourth Symphony. I discover why my old master had turned his ears and heart towards Schubert delightful music. It is absolutely gorgeous.
Oh, I see, you’re wondering what I would recommend if you just started: try the unfinished Symphony, the eighth one, it has just two movements. You won’t be disappointed.
