大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores the work of Franz Schubert, focusing on five distinct phases in the composer鈥檚 life. And afterlife.

We start in 1815, the year in which Schubert turned 18 and was a reluctant schoolmaster still living under his father鈥檚 roof. Although he was in many ways unhappy and constrained by his circumstances, he was still prodigiously prolific. In the years after 1820, we see him spreading his wings as he鈥檇 never been able to do before, enjoying a sense of liberation after being shackled to the schoolroom in his father鈥檚 house. In 1824 we see a year of ill-health for Schubert, but also a year of fighting back, with attempted cures and triumphant, ambitious music. In Schubert鈥檚 final year 鈥� inevitably coloured by sadness, but also by great spirit and tenacity - emerged what is for many people Schubert鈥檚 crowning achievement: his song-cycle Winterreise. Schubert died at the age of 31, when most people are just getting going in life 鈥� in the same decade as Keats and Byron and Shelley 鈥� and he's often thought of, with them, as an exemplar of a kind of doomed romanticism. Central to that is a sense of having been thwarted in life 鈥� encapsulated, in Schubert鈥檚 case, by the fact that so much of his music was unpublished in his lifetime, so much never even heard. However, in the years after his early death, his music found an audience, including the 大象传媒鈥檚 regular 鈥楽chubert Nights鈥� in the 1920s.

Music Featured:

Erlkonig
Sonatina for violin and piano No 2 in A minor
String Quartet No. 12
Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (Variation 38)
Am See
Sei mir gegr眉脽t, o Sonne! (Alfonso und Estrella, Act 1)
Fantasie in C major, 鈥淲anderer鈥�
Das Wandern (Die Schone Mullerin, No 1)
Des Baches Wiegenlied (Die Schone Mullerin, No 20)
Piano Sonata in C major for Four-Hands, "Grand Duo"
String Quartet No 13 in A minor, Op 29, "Rosamunde"
Arpeggione Sonata in A minor (1st - 2nd mvt)
Winterreise 2, No 1: Die Post
Winterreise 2, No 7: Tauschung
Symphony No 9 in C major, 鈥渢he Great鈥� (4th mvt)
Piano Sonata No 21 in B Flat major (1st mvt)
Die Nacht
Der Tod und das M盲dchen
Symphony No 10 (orch. Brian Newbould)

Presented by Donald Macleod
Produced by Martin Williams

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Franz Schubert (1797-1828) /programmes/m001bkkp

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we鈥檝e featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z