Composer of the Week: Schubert

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Penniless and ill

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Penniless and ill

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Penniless and ill

Donald Macleod focuses on Schubert's life in 1826 and his monumental final quartet.

Focusing on 1826, a year in the life of Schubert, Donald Macleod hears his monumental final string quartet, plus his setting of Goethe's poignant poem, None but the Lonely Heart.

This week of programmes about Franz Schubert focuses on five years through his short life, and feature one of his string quartets every day.

In 1826, Schubert was only two years away from his untimely death at the age of 31. Three of his close friends married in this year, whilst he remained single. In this year Schubert was short of money, suffering manic-depression and syphilis, and smoking and drinking heavily. But we hear, in a passionate outburst, his declaration: "I am Schubert....who has written great things and beautiful things... and who is going to write still more beautiful things..." 

This programme, presented by Donald Macleod, features Schubert's monumental final string quartet, plus his setting of Goethe's poignant "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" - "None but the Lonely Heart".

Kupelwieser Waltz 
Bertrand Chamayou, piano

String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D 887
Cuarteto Casals

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, D877/3  
Dorothea Roschmann, soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano

Producer: Amy Wheel for BBC Wales

Composer of the Week: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

A week of programmes about Franz Schubert focusing on five years of his short life.

A week of programmes about Franz Schubert focusing on five years of his short life and featuring, each day, one of his string quartets.

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Penniless and ill

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