Donald Macleod explores the remarkable and prolific final year of Schubert's life, during which he battled failing health to compose a succession of masterpieces.

There are few composers whose genius is so fertile that you can make a whole week of programmes from a single year of their life. Yet even by Franz Schubert's remarkably prolific standards, his last 12 months were utterly extraordinary. As his body entered terminal decline through a mixture of alcoholism and syphilis, masterpiece upon masterpiece poured from his pen: the String Quintet in C, the delirious last three piano sonatas, his Mass in E flat, the last collection of lieder, posthumously titled "Swansong" - and many more besides. This week Donald Macleod takes us through the last year of Schubert's tragically foreshortened life and death at the age of only 31.

Donald Macleod begins the week with Schubert's last - typically boozy - New Year's Eve party, of 1827/8, before introducing his last collection of songs, cobbled together and titled "Swansong" by his publisher after the composer's death. We'll hear excerpt from the set, sung by some of the greatest contemporary interpreters of Schubert's work, all week.

Die Taubenpost (Schwanengesang)
Matthias Goerne, baritone
Christoph Eschenbach, piano

Piano Trio in E flat, D929 - II. Andante
Trio Wanderer

Fantasy in C major, D934
Vineta Sareika, violin
Amandine Savary, piano

Impromptu in F minor, D935 no.4
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

Liebesbotschaft (Schwanengesang)
Matthias Goerne, baritone
Christoph Eschenbach, piano. Show less