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Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Franz Schubert. Today, we take a trip round Vienna, from the ‘Roman Emperor’ to the ‘Red Hedgehog’, in search of Schubert’s audience.

During his lifetime, Schubert was well-known, in his home-town of Vienna at least, as a composer of Lieder, but it’s often implied in the Schubert literature that outside of the ‘Schubertiads’ – the select salon-style gatherings at which his songs were the main attraction – Viennese music-lovers had little or no chance of hearing his work. In support of this contention, it’s regularly pointed out that in all his years as a composer, there was only one event entirely devoted to Schubert’s music: the grand ‘benefit’ concert held in the rooms of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde on the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death, 26 March 1828. But while it’s true that much of Schubert’s output remained unknown and unperformed for decades after his passing, there were plenty of opportunities while he was still alive for the Viennese public to hear his music. The first six of Schubert’s eight symphonies, for instance, were all given at least one public airing in his lifetime, albeit in salons rather than the concert-hall, and by the time of his death at the age of 31, performances of his chamber music were starting to become more frequent. He even managed to get one of his singspiels staged, and it’s interesting to speculate that had he lived longer, he might well have been a major contributor to the field of 19th-century opera.

Mass in F, D105 (Sanctus)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor

Overture in D, D590 (‘In the Italian style’)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Der Zwillingsbrüder, D647 (No 3, Aria, ‘Der Vater mag wohl immer Kind mich nennen’)
Helen Donath, soprano (Lieschen)
Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera
Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor

String Quartet in A minor, D804 (‘Rosamunde’) (1st mvt, Allegro ma non troppo)
Lindsay Quartet

Psalm 92, D953
Annemei Blessing-Leyhause, soprano
Esther Vis, alto
Patrick Siegrist, tenor
Michael Albert, Ekkehard Abele, bass
Deutscher Kammerchor
Michael Alber

Piano Trio in E flat, D929 (Op 100) (2nd mvt, Andante con moto)
Andreas Staier, fortepiano
Daniel Sepec, violin
Roel Dieltiens, cello

Produced by Chris Barstow.