1797       31 January, Franz Peter Schubert is born into the family of Franz Theodor Schubert and Elisabeth Schubert, née Vietz, in the Vienna suburb of Lichtental.

The conditions at school in the Vienna suburbs
The appointment of Schubert’s father as a schoolmaster in the Himmelpfortgrund district of Vienna in 1786 meant financial security for the family, which thus was able to occupy an apartment in the school building comprising a room, kitchen and a portion of the attic. School attendance was strictly organised in Vienna at this time; school fees, which the teachers had to live on, were collected primarily from well-to-do parents. The children of parents too poor to pay the fees were allowed to attend school free of charge. For all children, great store was set by punctuality and regular attendance, and non-observance of these obligations was severely punished. The tax levies during the ‘French period’ in 1808 presumably made the family’s financial situation somewhat more precarious, and so the parents must have been doubly pleased when one of their sons was admitted to the Kaiserlich-königliches Stadtkonvikt – the Imperial and Royal City College.

1801       The family moves from the house where Schubert was born, ‘Zum roten Krebsen’ in Himmelpfortgrund no. 72 (today: Nussdorferstrasse 54), into a new apartment house called ‘Zum schwarzen Rössl’ Himmelpfortgrund no. 10 (today: Säulengasse 3).

The first reports about Schubert’s childhood (1823 and 1829):
‘Franz Schubert is the son of an estimable and worthy man much respected in Vienna as a schoolmaster, and he was born in Himmelpfortgrunde in Rossau – His principal aptitudes developed when he was still a boy, and his exceptional talent and predilection for singing, in which he progressed with playful ease, brought him the good fortune of receiving a scholarship as Court chorister at the Imperial and Royal City College – Here he had the opportunity to develop his talent gradually – Among the Court choristers he stood out above them all, to the delight of his master, Herr Korner, Imperial and Royal Chapel singer of great merit – Endowed by nature with a good voice, surety of pitch was a matter of ease for him –’ Joseph Hüttenbrenner, Draft of an Article on Schubert, 1823 (published in 2001)
‘His esteemed father, who noticed musical talent in the child at an early age, gave him tuition on the violin himself. His eldest brother instructed him on the fortepiano. This instruction was continued by the Regens-chori at the parish church in Lichtenthal, Michael Holzer, and combined with instruction in singing. Until his death, Schubert remained humbly grateful to this old, worthy teacher, who received the pleasure of having a Mass dedicated to him by his excellent pupil.’ | Joseph von Spaun, On Franz Schubert (obituary), 1829

Schubert in his father’s schoolhouse
Schubert grew up in a household dominated by his father’s profession. Living conditions were cramped, with the many-member family having to make do with two rooms, which was not unusual for the time nor an indication of particular poverty. In his childhood, Schubert got to know a profession that he was to dislike so strongly in years to come.

1804       A boy by the name of ‘Francesco Schubert’ is given an aptitude test by Court musical director Antonio Salieri with a view to possible instruction as a choirboy. This could well have been the future composer.

1808       Schubert becomes Court choirboy and scholar at the Academic Gymnasium and enters the Imperial and Royal City College. There he first meets many important later friends such as Joseph von Spaun (1788-1865), Albert Stadler (1794-1888), Joseph Kenner (1794-1868), Johann Chrysostomus Senn (1795-1857), Anton Holzapfel (1792-1868) and Benedikt Randhartinger (1802-1893).

Schubert as choirboy
‘A beautiful voice and a depth of musical education rare for his tender age earned the young Schubert a place as a choirboy with the Court Chapel, by means of which distinction he became, at the same time, a pupil of the Stadtkonvikt. Service in the church was a delight to the boy; of all the excellently performed church music in the Court Chapel, it was those compositions that were distinguished more by inner merit and religious enthusiasm than by external elaboration which made the most profound impression on the child’s mind, which nature had by then already set on the right course.’ |  Joseph von Spaun, On Franz Schubert (obituary), 1829

1810       Schubert completes his first dated composition: Fantasie in G (D 1) for piano duet.

Schubert as violinist, pianist, conductor and composer of first instrumental works
‘Our composer was encouraged in particular by the musical society that existed at the Stadtkonvikt at that time to take up violin and piano playing – and soon he had progressed to the point where he directed the 1^st violins in the orchestra of pupils of the foremost Latin schools aged 12-14 years, among them […] pupils who had matured to men – His inclination towards composition manifested itself at an early stage – At the age of 14 or 15 he was already writing quartets and symphonies for the fellow pupils and colleagues who were subordinate to him, which were received with general acclaim and earned the young composer the special affection of all –’ |  Joseph Hüttenbrenner, Draft of an Article on Schubert, 1823 (published 2001)

1811       Lessons in thorough-bass with Wenzel Růžička. Attempts at symphony and opera composition. On 30 March he composes his first song to survive in its entirety - Hagars Klage (‘Hagar’s Lament’, D 5). Schubert hears his first operas at the Kärntnertor-Theater: Joseph Weigl’s Schweizerfamilie and Das Waisenhaus.

1812       Schubert’s mother dies. Composition lessons and counterpoint studies with Antonio Salieri until 1817. Schubert loses his choirboy position as his voice breaks. Composition of string quartets and attempts at small-scale church works.

Lessons with Antonio Salieri, musical director to the Court
‘At this time, the 1^st Hofkapellmeister Salieri took him into the school on Korner’s recommendation, and he immediately recognised in him the genius whose rays would soon reach out into the wide world of art with bright splendour – After several years of study at the school of this great master, the pupil soon emerged himself as a master of composition in all departments – When aged only 18, Schubert wrote a large Mass in F, which was presently performed in a number of churches and before long in the Court church of St Augustine, earning the admiration of all in view of the composer’s young age – The most interest and amazement, however, was aroused by the songs of Salieri’s young pupil, for in this genre of song, he showed himself to be a shining star – a new creator –’ | Joseph Hüttenbrenner, Draft of an Article on Schubert, 1823 (published 2001)

Schubert the pupil, on slender fare and little money, 1812
‘I shall come straight to the point and tell you what is on my mind, instead of putting it off by means of pleasant digressions. I have thought for a long time about my situation and have found it to be good on the whole, but it could still be improved here and there; you know from experience how sometimes one wants to eat a roll and an apple or two, especially when after a modest luncheon one can only look forward to a wretched evening meal 8½ hours later. This wish is a constantly recurring one, and I must, nolens volens, finally bring about a change. The few groschen that I get from father are gone after the first few days – the devil knows where. What am I to do for the rest of the time?’ | Franz Schubert to one of his brothers, 24 November 1812

Report by a friend of Schubert’s on circumstances at the Vienna Stadtkonvikt, 1813
‘Since you don’t write, I will describe to you my situation, our splendid amusements during the Christmas holidays. Imagine, dear friend, a circle of the most stupid and brutish people who do nothing so gladly as drinking and gaming, a dusty almost nauseating room, dusty boots, drinking glasses, blacking boxes, hat cases, shoe horns, old breeches, shabby novels, pots and pans, bottles, brushes, table and drawers full; in addition, a landlord with an antipodal prefect, the bulldog of a director, without even thinking of Schönberger etc. – and you will appreciate my delightful circumstances.’ ‘You cannot imagine how triste and bleak our Convict is compared to that in Kremsmünster; one truly feels one has been transposed from the smiling meadows of the kingdom of ideas, from Heaven’s precincts to a swampy land of dreadful prose – dreadful upon arrival, more horrible still upon tarrying longer, and here no band of intimates forms, as it does there; self-interest and envy watch from every slightest action – one can hardly believe at first that life here is bearable.’ | Franz von Schlechta to Franz von Schober about the Vienna Stadtkonvikt, 1813

1813       Schubert’s father remarries; his new wife is Anna Kleyenböck (1783-1860). Schubert leaves the Stadtkonvikt and begins a teacher-training course at the St Anna Normalhauptschule. He meets the poet Theodor Körner shortly before the latter leaves Vienna for the Wars of Liberation, and he hears the singers Anna Pauline Milder-Hauptmann and Johann Michael Vogl in Gluck’s Iphigenie auf Tauris.

Compositions: Symphony No. 1 (D 82), start of the first version of the opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (D 84) to a libretto by August von Kotzebue

1814       Graduating from the Normalhauptschule, Schubert becomes a teaching assistant at his father’s school (1814-1816 and 1817-1818). First meeting with Johann Mayrhofer (1787-1836). Schubert falls in love with singer Therese Grob (1798-1875); the love is unrequited. He tells Anton Holzapfel (1792-1868) about it in a (lost) letter of 1815. His friend seeks to dissuade him, later recalling that Therese was ‘by no means a beauty’ but was endowed with a delightful soprano voice. Premiere of the Mass in F (D 105) on 25 September 1814 as part of the centenary celebrations at Lichtenthal Church. The Mass was repeated on the Emperor’s name-day, 4 October, in the Court church of St Augustine. The soprano solo part was sung, probably on both occasions, by Therese Grob.

Compositions: Second version of the opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (D 84) to a libretto by August von Kotzebue, Gretchen am Spinnrade (‘Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel’, D 118), Mass in F (D 105)

Schubert’s first meeting with Johann Mayrhofer (1787-1836)
‘My acquaintance with Franz Schubert was brought about by a friend of my youth, who gave him my poem Am See […] for composition. It was this friend who brought Schubert, in 1814, to the room that we would occupy together five years later. It is situated on Wipplingerstraße. The room and the building have felt the might of time: the ceiling has sunk somewhat, the light reduced by a large building standing opposite, a piano in poor condition for having been played overmuch, a narrow book case; thus was the room appointed, and my memory of the room and the hours spent therein will never fade.’ | Johann Mayrhofer on Schubert, early 1829.     Schubert had Mayrhofer to thank for 47 song texts and two Singspiel libretti that were written for him. Mayrhofer is, after Goethe and Schiller, the poet most often set by Schubert, more often even than Wilhelm Müller. Their friendship, moreover, was an inspiration to both of them. Mayrhofer told Joseph von Spaun that ‘he considers his life has been made more beautiful by Schubert’s wonderful songs, and his own poems please him only once Schubert has set them to music.’ Two verses were found among Mayrhofer’s papers after his death which reflect the sense of mutual stimulus and influence: ‘Du bist mir an das Herz gedrungen, Was ich gefühlt, hast Du gesungen.’ (You have touched my heart. What I felt, you sang.)

Comments on Schubert’s prolific creativity in the years 1813 to 1815
‘To Schubert’s first, exceptionally fruitful period belong not only countless songs, which are all without exception distinguished by original treatment, depth of feeling and an indescribable richness of melody, but also several larger compositions. He composed a large, very melodic symphony as early as in 1813, a complete Mass, which he conducted himself at Lichtenthal parish church in 1814, then in 1815 came two symphonies, and from the same time the operettas Der Spiegelritter, Des Teufels Lustschloss and Claudine von Villa Bella, as well as several cantatas, which he occasionally found himself called upon to supply, and quartets for stringed instruments, at which he also tried his hand.’ | Joseph von Spaun, On Franz Schubert (obituary), 1829

1815       Congress of Vienna. Schubert makes the acquaintance of Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868), Franz von Schober (1796-1882), Joseph Gahy (1793-1864), Joseph Wilhelm Witteczek (1787-1859) and Karl von Enderes (1788-1860). He composes some one hundred and fifty songs, i.e. one quarter of his œuvre in this genre, among them many settings of poems by Goethe and ballads by Schiller as well as a group of songs to poems by Ludwig Theobul Kosegarten – one of the earliest substantial song-cycles, predating Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte.

Compositions: Several minor church works and the Mass in G (D 167), settings of poems by Ossian, Symphony No. 3 in D, 14 songs to poems by Theodor Körner, the stage works Der vierjährige Posten (D 190) and Fernando after Anton Stadler (D 220), Claudine von Villa Bella after Goethe (D 239), and the song Erlkönig (D 328)

1816       Unsuccessful application for the position of music master in Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia). Schubert compiles his settings of poems by Goethe (which are sent to the poet by Joseph von Spaun with an accompanying letter). A compilation is also made for Heinrich Grob, Therese’s brother. Schubert lives with Spaun in lodgings with Heinrich Watteroth in the suburb Landstraße, where his first commissioned and paid work is premiered, the cantata Prometheus (D 451). The oldest surviving diary entries date from this year; they record daily events and personal reflections. Performance of Symphony No. 2 (D 125) by a private orchestra. Schubert lodges in the same house as Franz von Schober from autumn 1816 to summer 1817. He composes more than a hundred songs.

Compositions: Symphony No. 4 in C minor ‘Tragic’ (D 417), the cantata Prometheus (D 451), Der Wanderer after Schmidt von Lübeck (D 489)

Schubert’s diary entries on Mozart, Goethe and Schiller
‘13 June 1816. Today will remain a bright, clear and lovely day for the rest of my life. Softly, as though from afar, I still hear the magical strains of Mozart’s music. How incredibly forcefully, and yet again how gently did Schlesinger’s masterly playing imprint it deep, deep into one’s heart. These beautiful impressions thus remain within our souls, which neither time nor circumstance may efface, and they exercise a beneficial influence upon our existence. In the dark vales of this life they show us bright and lovely uplands whereon we fix our hopes. O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, o how numberless are the beneficial visions of a brighter, better life which have you impressed in our souls! – This quintet is, so to say, one of his greatest smaller compositions. – I, too, had to perform on this occasion. I played variations by Beethoven, and sang Goethe’s Rastlose Liebe and Schiller’s Amalia. Unanimous acclaim for the former, less for the latter. Although I myself regard my Rastlose Liebe as more successful than Amalia, yet one cannot deny that the musicality of Goethe’s poetic genius contributed greatly to the acclaim.’ | Franz Schubert, diary, June 1816.

1816/17   Wilhelm Müller conceives Die schöne Müllerin, a short story told in poems.
As a result of a party game for guests of Hedwig Staegemann in Berlin, Wilhelm Müller writes a cycle of 23 poems, framed by a prologue and epilogue.

1817       Schubert meets the singer Johann Michael Vogl for the first time. First mention of the composer in a periodical (poem of homage). The first volume appears of Beyträge zur Bildung für Jünglinge, edited by a circle of Schubert’s Upper Austrian friends around Anton von Spaun and Anton Ottenwalt. Also, Schubert is probably ‘one of the most active members’ of the Nonsense Society around the actor Eduard Anschütz and the Kupelwieser brothers (up to and including 1818). A watercolour by Leopold Kupelwieser showing a fat man in the ‘archive of human nonsense’ might be the first caricature of Schubert. Acquaintance with Joseph Hüttenbrenner. Composition of some 60 more songs.

Compositions: Der Tod und das Mädchen (‘Death and the Maiden’, D 531), Ganymed (D 544), An die Musik (D 547), Die Forelle (‘The Trout’, D 550), piano sonatas, preliminary work on Symphony No. 6 (D 589).

A congenial artistic partnership: Schubert and the first significant interpreter of his songs, Johann Michael Vogl
‘At the first meeting Schubert was not without embarrassment. First he presented, for evaluation, a poem by Maierhofer, ‘Augen-Lied’, which he had only shortly before set to music. Vogl, recognising Schubert’s talent from this song immediately, looked with growing interest through a number of other songs which the young composer, deeply gratified by such approbation, handed to him. A few weeks later Vogl sang Schubert’s ‘Wanderer’, ‘Kampf’, ‘Erlkönig’ and other songs before a small, but delighted audience, the singer’s enthusiasm being the most valid testimony for the composer. […] Vogl through well-intentioned counsel opened up the treasury of his experience to the young friend, saw in a fatherly manner that his needs were met, Schubert’s income in the early days being insufficient, and smoothed the path to fame that he so gloriously achieved by the magnificent performance of his songs.’ | Joseph von Spaun, On Franz Schubert (obituary), 1829

1818       Premiere of Symphony No. 6 by Otto Hatwig’s orchestra; premiere of the two overtures in the ‘Italian style’. Erlafsee (D 586) is the first Schubert song to be published. Schubert unsuccessfully seeks ‘practising’ membership of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde; later he is admitted and ultimately becomes a member of its body of representatives. The Schubert family moves to the district of Rossau. Schubert spends summer and autumn in Zséliz as music tutor to the Esterházy family. His pupil is Countess Caroline; he also meets the singer Baron Schönstein. Back in Vienna, Schubert shares rooms with Johann Mayrhofer.

Compositions: ‘Small’ Symphony in C (D 589), Einsamkeit (‘Solitude’, D 620)

Schubert as music tutor to the Countess Esterházy in Zséliz
The family of Count Johann Carl Esterházy, which resided in Vienna in the winter, spent some months every summer at their country estate, Schloß Zséliz, then in Hungary. The family was accompanied by an entourage of domestics and companions. It was with this party in 1818 that the young composer had his first opportunity to leave his native city and to earn some money – 200 florins in July alone. Offered the prospect of escaping the drudgery of teaching at his father’s school, Schubert applied for a pass as ‘music master to Joh. Esterhazzy’ for a five-month period of residence among the ‘Schnauzbartler’ - as the Hungarians were known in those days on account of their walrus moustaches. Schubert had been recommended to the Count’s family by the author and dilettante singer Johann Carl Unger. He appears to have continued his association with the Esterházys over the years both in Vienna and in Zséliz.

1819       Assassination of the playwright August von Kotzebue by a member of a student fraternity, Karl Ludwig Sand. This leads to repressive measures known as the Carlsbad Decrees (imposing general censorship, prohibiting fraternities at universities). Schubert’s first meeting with Moritz von Schwind and probably with Joseph Ludwig Streinsberg and Franz von Bruchmann. Schubert undertakes a journey to Steyr, Linz and Kremsmünster in Vogl’s company. Performance of the cantata Prometheus (D 451) in a ‘musical exercise’ at the home of Ignaz Sonnleithner. First public performance of a Schubert song, Des Schäfers Klagelied (‘The Shepherd’s Lament’ D 121), to a text by Franz Jäger.

Compositions: Adrast (D 137, opera fragment after Mayrhofer), songs to poems from Friedrich Schlegel’s cycle Abendröte (further settings up to 1823), Hymnen to texts by Novalis, Sonette after Petrarch (D 628-630), ‘Trout’ Quintet (D 667)

Schubert’s visits to Linz and his acquaintances there
Because of his many friends in Upper Austria, particularly the families Spaun, Ottenwalt and Kenner, Schubert visited the town of Linz frequently, first in 1819 and again in 1823 and in 1825 with Johann Michael Vogl. On his last visit to Linz (1825), his close friend Joseph von Spaun was absent and Schubert had to stay with Spaun’s brother-in-law Ottenwalt, which occasioned the composer to complain in a letter that, while he knew he was being unfair to the rest of Linz folk, the city without Spaun was ‘like a soup without salt’.

1820       Johann Senn is arrested in the presence of Bruchmann and Schubert. Therese Grob marries Johann Bergmann. On Easter Sunday, Schubert conducts Haydn’s Nelson Mass in the church at Altlerchenfeld. In summer, Schubert pays his first visit to Atzenbrugg. Premiere of the Singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder (D 647) at the Kärntnertor-Theater and of Die Zauberharfe (D 644) at the Theater an der Wien.

Compositions: Lazarus (D 689), ‘Quartettsatz’ – string quartet movement in C minor (D 703), Der zürnenden Diana (D 707)

Summer 1820 – the first and last attempt at the genre of ‘melodrama’:
Die Zauberharfe (‘The Magic Harp’)
A magical play with music in 3 acts by Franz Schubert (D 644). Premiere on 19 August 1820 at the Theater an der Wien. As with Helmina von Chézy’s play Rosamunde (by which title the Zauberharfe overture is known today), the cast consists of one tenor, a choir and otherwise only actors. How large the proportion of spoken text was cannot be determined any longer because only fragments of it survive. The play was most likely the work of Georg von Hofmann, who may have made use of ideas from Schubert’s circle of friends. An extravaganza of mechanical stage effects, it was conceived to highlight the accomplishments of stage decorators and machinists. Fully in line with the Viennese version of the French ‘mélodrame’ of Ignaz von Seyfried, Schubert produced a score consisting of large, symphonic-rhapsodic orchestral movements which reflect in music the purportedly expressive dialogues and monologues of the play. In terms of composition it is radically different to the ‘farce with singing’ Die Zwillingsbrüder (‘The Twin Brothers’) which had been performed at the Kärntnertor-Theater a short time before. A review in a theatre journal noted the following about the incidental music to Die Zauberharfe: ‘Many good ideas, strong passages, ingenious harmony, insight and understanding; but a great deal of unevenness, the commonplace next to the particular, the light and the contrived, the enduring and the trivial pell-mell, and in spite of what is good, one cannot help regarding the whole work as a composition done in haste, though not one that warrants censure here; one might only wish better material and greater deliberation on the part of this talented composer in future.’

The arrest of Schubert’s friend Senn
From around 1818, Johann Chrysostomus Senn, son of a Tyrolean freedom-fighter, increasingly came to be the intellectual centre of Schubert’s circle of friends. Philosophy was discussed, with an emphasis on the idealistic thinkers, first among them Fichte, but also Schelling and Hegel. There was a direct connection with Schelling through Bruchmann who, in spite of a police ban, travelled to Erlangen in order to hear Schelling speak and to make his acquaintance. In 1820 Senn’s home was searched and the literature that was found was inspected. He had made himself suspicious to the police because of a fraternity-style assembly in an alehouse (to which his pupil Anton Doblhoff-Dier also belonged, who later became minister after the 1848 Revolution). There, according to police reports, Senn had said: ‘the government is too stupid to penetrate his secrets.’ Schubert and Bruchmann, who were there too and who did not refrain from insulting the police themselves, got off with a serious warning. Senn, however, was taken into custody for over a year. Nothing serious could be proved against him – other than that he was ‘a genius’, as is reported in the police files – and upon his release he was deported to his native province, Tyrol, destroying his career chances.

1821       First public performance of Erlkönig by August von Gymnich and subsequently by Johann Michael Vogl. Publication of the ballad as op. 1. Schubert is co-repetiteur and directs the rehearsals for Caroline Unger’s debut at the Kärntnertor-Theater. Schubert moves out of Mayrhofer’s lodgings and lives alone for the first time. In autumn he stays in St Pölten with Schober, where the first Schubertiads are held. Back in Vienna, he lodges with Schober. Composition of the opera Alfonso und Estrella (D 732) to a libretto by Schober. Spaun moves to Linz, Bruchmann studies with Schelling in Erlangen in defiance of police orders.

Compositions: Gesang der Geister über den Wassern (D 714), Suleika I and II (D 720 and 717), Symphony in E major (D 729, fragment), Alfonso und Estrella (D 732)

1822       Schubert plans the ‘proper collection’ and systematic publication of his lieder (songs). He writes the allegorical tale Mein Traum (‘My Dream’) and works on the drafting of a symphony. First extensive report on Schubert’s lieder in a journal. Meetings with Carl Maria von Weber and Beethoven are documented. Rossini comes to Vienna. Court opera singer Vogl retires. Bruchmann visits the exiled Senn in Innsbruck. Schober institutes a reading circle.

Compositions: Mass in A flat (D 678), Heliopolis I and II (D 753 and D 754), the cantata Am Geburtstage des Kaisers (D 748), Symphony in B minor (‘Unfinished’ D 759), Gott in der Natur (D 757), ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy (D 760)

1823       Schubert lives with Joseph Huber in the Stubentorbastei. First mention of his suffering from syphilis, treatment at Vienna General Hospital and privately by Dr. Jakob Bernhard. Break with the publisher Cappi & Diabelli. First meeting with composer Franz Lachner. Honorary membership of the Styrian Music Society on the suggestion of Johann Baptist Jenger and of the Linz Music Society thanks to the efforts of his friends in Upper Austria. Two performances of his incidental music to Rosamunde, a play by Helmina von Chézy, at the Theater an der Wien. Schober leaves Vienna for nearly two years, working in Breslau under the pseudonym ‘Torupson’. At the same time Kupelwieser goes to Italy as the travelling companion of the Russian Alexander Beresin.

Compositions: Die Verschwornen (D 787), Fierrabras (D 796), Die schöne Müllerin (D 795), Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister op. 62, songs to poems by Johann Gabriel Seidl op. 80, Rosamunde (D 797).

Schubert and Vogl at a performance in Salzburg
‘Vogl sang some of my songs, whereupon we received an invitation to perform on the following evening before a select circle, all of whom were then most touched by the songs, the Ave Maria mentioned in my first letter being met with particular favour. How Vogl sings and I accompany, how we seem to be one at such a moment, is something quite new and unknown to these people.’ | Schubert to his brother Ferdinand on 12 September 1825

Evidence of self-doubt and a creative crisis in genres where he had previously known success, c. 1823
‘You know yourself how it was with the reception of the latest quartets; people have had enough. It may indeed be possible for me to invent a new form, but one could not reckon with any certainty on its being successful. You […] must perhaps concede that it is essential for me to go onwards with certainty, & that I cannot under any circumstances accept the honourable invitation [...].’ | Schubert on his vocal quartets to Leopold Sonnleithner, January 1823 (?). ‘Since I possess nothing for a full orchestra that I could send out into the world with a quiet conscience, and so many works by great masters exist, e.g. by Beethoven: Overtures from Prometheus, Egmont, Coriolanus etc. etc. etc., I must sincerely beg you to forgive me for not being able to be of service to you in this matter, for it would surely be disadvantageous for me to appear with something mediocre.’ | Schubert to Joseph Peitl, undated (1823?)

Contemporary comparisons of Schubert with other great figures of music history
While many level-headed friends like Mayrhofer, Spaun and Sonnleithner were somewhat reserved in their assessment of his achievement, Schubert did find a great number of enthusiastic apologists among his close friends. Franz von Schober, for instance, wrote as follows to Joseph von Spaun on 4 November 1821: ‘I only wish that you had been there and heard the glorious melodies come into being, it is wonderful how ideas poured forth from him again so richly.’ And in 1823 Joseph Hüttenbrenner wrote admiringly about Schubert’s achievements in all musical genres, naming a large number of compositions and daring to make the – at that time bold - comparison with Mozart and Beethoven. Then he went on: ‘These, however, are insignificant accomplishments compared to compositions which Schubert has written & which lie unknown in the chest. – Schubert has already written’ But his paean abruptly breaks off before he actually lists the works. Helmina von Chézy, writing on 4 February 1824, also made the comparison with Mozart: ‘In this wonderful young artist there blooms the hope of a second Mozart; he, too, is esteemed and popular beyond reckoning.’

1824       Just as Alfonso und Estrella was rejected in previous years, Schubert’s new operas Fierrabras and Die Verschwornen are rejected by the Court Opera, although it commissioned the latter. Ongoing crises among his circle of friends and in the reading circle. Premiere of the A minor String Quartet (D 804) by Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Schubert lieder are first heard in translation at a concert in Amsterdam. In summer and autumn he stays at Zséliz for a second time, where his relations with his pupil Countess Caroline Esterházy possibly become closer. He starts a brief correspondence with Anna Milder in Berlin, who is to try to secure the performance of some of his works there.

Compositions: Octet (D 803), Auflösung (D 807), String Quartet in A minor (D 804), String Quartet in D minor Der Tod und das Mädchen (D 810), Grand Duo (D 812), Divertissement à l’hongroise (D 818), ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata (D 821).

Schubert’s second notebook
‘My creations are the result of my understanding of music and of my pain; those that pain alone has created, seem to please the world least of all.’ ‘O imagination! Man’s greatest treasure, inexhaustible source at which both Art and Learning come to drink! O remain with us, though recognised and revered only by the few, that we might be saved from so-called enlightenment, that hideous skeleton without flesh and blood!’ | Franz Schubert, Notebook, March 1824

‘And so prepare the way for a big symphony’
Writing in March 1824, Schubert, in low spirits, poured his heart out to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser. In the same letter he told him what works he had recently completed and what he was planning to write, and thus we know that he wanted to attempt another symphony: ‘I have written little new in the way of songs, though I have tried my hand at various instrumental things, for I have composed 2 quartets for violins, viola and violoncello, and an octet, and want to write another quartet, and so prepare the way for a big symphony.’ Kupelwieser was informed of this again eight weeks later in a letter from Schwind, who told him Schubert ‘means to write a symphony’. One of the piano pieces he had composed was a substantial work for four hands, the ‘Grand Duo’ (D 812), which some have suggested may actually have been the draft of a symphony. Although the work is designated a piano sonata in the manuscript and has numerous characteristics indicating it was conceived for piano, Joseph Joachim later produced an orchestration of it.

Ideas for a concert solely of Schubert’s music.
Schubert apprised Kupelwieser in Rome of the spectacular concert being planned by Beethoven: ‘The latest news in Vienna is that Beethoven is going to give a concert at which he will present his new symphony, 3 items from the new Mass, and a new overture. – I intend to give a similar concert next year, God willing.’ The idea to organise a public concert consisting solely of Schubert’s compositions was not, in fact, his own. Just as he was persuaded to have song-books engraved by Leopold Sonnleithner and Joseph Hüttenbrenner, so it was another friend, his physician Dr Jakob Bernhard, who first suggested holding such a concert: ‘Schubert […] is very often with Vogel and Leidesdorf. That shrewd doctor is also with him a great deal. Now he (doctor) is thinking of a musical academy or public Schubertiad. If anything materialises, I’ll send you word.’ Moritz von Schwind to Franz von Schober on 22 December 1823. It can be assumed that Beethoven’s concert profoundly impressed Schubert, but written reactions to it are only to be found amongst his friends, especially the sculptor Anton Dietrich and painter Wilhelm August Rieder. ‘Recently we had a rare pleasure: Beethoven gave a great musical academy, in which his latest compositions were performed, namely a big overture, the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei from his new Mass, then a divine symphony, the finale of which was the Song [sic] to Joy by Schiller; we have never had a more beautiful evening at the theatre, the house was full including the boxes, and Beethoven was received with an enthusiasm and jubilation such as I have never heard. He conducted himself - it was quite divine to behold him animating everything with emphasis and sensitivity. In the orchestra were the foremost artists of Vienna who performed with immense commitment and ardour.’ (Anton Dietrich to Leopold Kupelwieser in Rome, 14 June 1824) And Schubert’s portraitist Rieder asked: ‘I daresay you can’t have that sort of thing in Rome either???’

1825       Schubertiads begin to be held every week at the homes of Karl von Enderes and Joseph Wilhelm Witteczek. Schubert meets and becomes friends with Eduard von Bauernfeld, whose diary contains much important information about Schubert’s life. Schubert takes rooms in the Fruhwirthhaus directly to the left of the Karlskirche. Anna Milder and Carl Adam Bader sing Schubert lieder in Berlin (Die Forelle, Erlkönig and Suleika), meeting with considerable success. The first pirated editions appear - Die Forelle in Berlin and the Air russe in Naples (the first lieder and piano works in Amsterdam and Paris in 1827). Schubert sends Goethe the song-book op. 19 which is dedicated to him. Wilhelm August Rieder paints Schubert’s portrait. Schubert travels with Johann Michael Vogl to Upper Austria and Salzburg; in Gmunden he works on a symphony (later elaborated as the ‘Great’ C major Symphony). He makes the acquaintance of Ferdinand Traweger and Anton Ottenwalt. Spaun moves to Lemberg (now Lviv) some time before April 1826, Johann Baptist Jenger (1797-1856) comes to Vienna from Graz. Anton Ottenwalt visits Schubert and friends in Vienna.

Compositions: settings of poems from Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake, among them Ave Maria (D 839), piano sonatas in C major and A minor (D 840 and D 845), Das Heimweh and Die Allmacht (D 851 and D 852), preliminary work on the ‘Great’ C major Symphony (D 944)

Schubert’s account of his travels
Schubert’s travels in the summer of 1825, probably the longest and furthest he ever undertook, produced many experiences that were significant to his development as a composer. We should be grateful perhaps to his brother Ferdinand, whose ‘appeal’ induced Schubert in September 1825 to write a long account of his holiday journeys. In it, Schubert the wanderer and meticulous observer of nature describes, for instance, his impressions of the mountains around Salzburg: ‘The mountains rise up ever higher, especially the fabulous Untersberg, which stands out against the others as though by some enchantment. [...] The sun grows dim, and the heavy clouds drift away over the black mountains like nebulous spirits; yet they do not touch the summit of the Untersberg: they steal past it, as though in fear of the dreadfulness within. The wide valley, which is dotted with distant castles, churches and farms, becomes more clearly discernible to our delighted eyes. Towers and palaces gradually appear; at last we pass the Kapuzinerberg, whose vast wall of rock ascends vertically from the roadside and frowns fearsomely over the traveller. The Untersberg amid its retinue has become a colossus, almost crushing us with its size.’

Schubert’s reflections on piety, and religious sentiment in his music
‘In particular my new songs, from Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake, gave great happiness. There was much surprise, too, at my piety, which I expressed in a Hymn to the Blessed Virgin, and which seems to touch all hearts and dispose them to religious contemplation. I think that this is so because I never force myself into a devotional state, and I never compose hymns or prayers of this sort unless I am involuntarily overcome by such a state - and then as a rule it is genuine and true devotion.’ | Schubert to his father and step-mother, 25 July 1825

1826       Schubert lodges with Moritz von Schwind in Franz von Schober’s house in the Vienna suburb of Währing, then with him inside the city, then alone in the bastion at Karolinentor. A large Schubertiad at Joseph von Spaun’s house. Schubert applies to the Emperor unsuccessfully for the vacant post of vice musical director to the Court at Kärntnertor-Theater. He contacts German publishers but fails to secure a publishing contract. He becomes friends with the Linz brothers Fritz (1805-1850) and Franz von Hartmann (1808-1895), who are studying in Vienna and who record the activities of Schubert’s circle in their diaries, also naming what is read at the literary evenings. Also the diary of Sophie Müller (1803-1830) contains entries on meetings with Schubert.

Compositions: German Mass to a text by Johann Philipp Neumann (D 872), String Quartet in G major (D 887), Piano Sonata in G major (D 894), Rondo brillant (D 895), three Shakespeare songs.

1827       Beethoven dies in March. Schubert is elected as a representative to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He lodges with Franz von Schober (until August 1828). In September Schubert and Johann Baptist Jenger visit Graz for the first time, staying with Karl, Marie and Faust Pachler; he renews his friendship with Anselm Hüttenbrenner. First performance of the Octet (D 803) and the Piano Trio in B flat major (D 898) by Ignaz Schuppanzigh.

Compositions: the song-cycle Winterreise to poems by Wilhelm Müller (D 911), the opera fragment Der Graf von Gleichen to a libretto by Eduard von Bauernfeld (D 918), Ständchen by Franz Grillparzer (D 920) for Anna Fröhlich and her pupils, a march for four hands for the eight-year-old Faust Pachler (D 928), piano trios in B flat major and E flat major (D 898, D 929), Der Hochzeitsbraten (D 930), Impromptus (D 899, D 935), Fantasie for piano and violin (D 934).

Meetings and discussions with friends
‘How often we three would be on the town almost until dawn, and would accompany one another home – but since we were quite unable to part, we would not infrequently pass the night at this or that person’s house. We were not too fastidious about comfort [...]! Friend Moriz occasionally threw himself on the bare floor, covered merely by a leather coverlet [...]. In the matter of property, the communistic view prevailed; hats, boots, cravats, also coats and another category of garment, if they could be made to fit approximately, were common property; and yet with time they would pass into uncontested private property, since varied use always leads to a certain preference for the garment. Whoever happened to have ready money paid for the other or others.’ | Eduard von Bauernfeld, ‘A Few Words on Franz Schubert’, 1869

1828       Last Schubertiad in the presence of the composer, held at Joseph von Spaun’s house. The publishers Probst of Leipzig and Schott of Mainz express interest in Schubert’s compositions. He offers Probst the Piano Trio in E flat (D 929) among other works. A private concert consisting only of Schubert’s music is given on 26 March. Journey to Heiligenkreuz in the company of Johann Schickh and Franz Lachner. Publication of Moments musicaux (D 780). In September Schubert moves out of the Inner City to live with his brother Ferdinand in Wieden (today Kettenbrückengasse). Walking tour to Eisenstadt. Lessons in counterpoint with Simon Sechter in November. Correction of the proofs of Winterreise. Schubert dies on 19 November at his brother’s home. In accordance with his wishes he is buried near Beethoven’s grave in the Währing district cemetery, Vienna.

Compositions: ‘Great’ C major Symphony (D 944) elaborating sketches made at Gmunden (1825), Fantasy in F minor for piano duet (D 940), Mass in E flat (D 950), Psalm 92 (D 953), String Quintet in C (D 956), settings of poems by Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl which are published collectively as Schwanengesang (D 957) by Tobias Haslinger, three piano sonatas (D 958-960), sketch for a symphony (D 936A) and Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (‘The Shepherd on the Rock’) to poems by Wilhelm Müller (D 965).

Reports of Schubert’s final weeks

‘Some ten days before his death Schubert dined at my house along with several other friends. He was cheerful, indeed exuberantly jovial, which mood might have been brought about by the fair quantity of wine that was savoured and to which he was rather partial. The fish that caused him to be nauseous and made him feel he had taken poison – he had eaten it, I believe, at his brother’s home several evenings earlier, and the poison seems not to have had an adverse effect, for he was completely well on that evening and, as I said, uncommonly gay. The belief that he had taken poison dogged him fairly often; he had expressed the idea at various times in earlier years, also at Zseliz. The illusion possessed him once in Zseliz – I do not remember what year it was – with such force that he found not a moment’s peace, and he even begged me, on the evening of my return to Vienna – for I was there on a visit - to take him back with me.’
Karl von Schönstein’s Memories of Schubert’s Illness, 1857

Death and burial

Schubert died on 19 November 1828 in the afternoon, when many of his close friends were in St Stephen’s Cathedral at the wedding of Justina von Bruchmann and Rudolf Smetana. Joseph Hüttenbrenner records that on his death-bed Schubert sang melodies from the Mass in E flat (D 950). Although delirious, he expressed the wish to be buried near Beethoven in Währing cemetery, according to his brother Ferdinand. The family conceded to the wish, but until the invitation to the ceremony in St Joseph’s Church in the Margarethen suburb it was not certain that Schubert would be buried there. Beethoven’s works ‘Miserere’ and ‘Amplius lava me’ were sung in an arrangement by Ignaz von Seyfried at Schubert’s burial, as they had been at Beethoven’s own funeral. The choice of this music stems from the Hüttenbrenner brothers; Joseph, in particular, sought to honour Schubert in this way and to publicly proclaim his true status.

1828       ‘That Schubert should no longer exist seems like a dream to me.’
‘One of our best friends, who would truly have deserved a longer life than many thousands – is no more. Schubert died 8 days ago: he, the merriest of us all, in the prime of his life and his work – Art! He was bedridden for just 8 or 9 days. A malignant nervous fever, which the doctor probably failed to recognise at first, snatched him away swiftly. He had been living for a couple of months with his brother in Wieden. I was with him two days before his death: the day after that he became delirious and never came round again. I don’t think highly of myself for it, but I truly wish that I had gone instead of him. […] Have you still not written to your mother? Then do so! You see how quickly a person may die, and then one needlessly regrets not having done everything for him whiles he was alive. […] That Schubert should no longer exist seems like a dream to me. I believe a large piece of my youth died with him. Schober is doing badly. […] farewell, dear friend, write soon, and don’t you die on your Eduard too.’ Eduard von Bauernfeld to Ferdinand Mayerhofer from Grünbühel on 26 November 1828
Obituaries, memorial poems and compositions dedicated to the deceased | From 1828/1829 obituaries for Schubert are published by his friends Johann Mayrhofer, Joseph von Spaun and Eduard von Bauernfeld in Vienna and Linz journals. In May 1829 a subscription to Schwanengesang (‘Swansong’, D 957) is organised along with a list of Schubert’s bereaved friends, acquaintances and others with an interest in its publication. First performance of the Mass in E flat (D 950). A monument was erected on his grave in Währing cemetery in 1830, with Joseph Alois Dialer’s bronze bust of Schubert.

Franz Grillparzer’s proposals for an epitaph on Schubert’s grave:
‘Wanderer! Have you heard Schubert’s songs? He lies under this stone. (Here lies he who sang them.)’
‘The art of music here entombed a rich possession, but even fairer hopes.’
‘He bade poetry sound and music speak.’
Franz Grillparzer, September 1829. The second epitaph was chosen.

1829       Obituaries by Schubert friends Johann Mayrhofer, Leopold Sonnleithner, Joseph von Spaun and Eduard von Bauernfeld appear in journals, an obituary by Joseph Hüttenbrenner remains unprinted. Schwanengesang is published on subscription. First performance of the Mass in E flat (D 950) in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Alser suburb on 4 October 1829.

1830       A monument is erected in Währing cemetery with Joseph Dialer’s bust of Schubert. Anna Milder-Hauptmann sings Der Hirt auf dem Felsen in Riga and Berlin. Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient sings Erlkönig to Goethe.

1832       Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient sings Schubert lieder in her London concerts. Erlkönig is published for the first time in English, appearing in an almanac by Christian Wessel.

1833       Unsuccessful first performance of the E flat major Piano Trio in Paris. First revised editions of Schubert’s lieder as well as unpublished works are published with French texts by Charles Richault. The celebrated opera tenor Adolphe Nourrit interprets Schubert’s lieder in French salons from 1834 onwards. Premiere of the string quartet Der Tod und das Mädchen in Berlin. From now until 1846 Franz Liszt arranges 55 Schubert lieder for piano.

1835       Schwind makes sketches for a Schubert room decorated with motifs from poems by Mayrhofer and Goethe that Schubert had set. The tenor Adolphe Nourrit sings Schubert for the first time in public in Paris. Ferdinand Schubert’s Pastoral Mass (published in 1846 as his op. 13) quotes many of his brother’s compositions, both very early and late.

1836       Johann Mayrhofer takes his own life. The first Schubert novella is written by J. B. C. Jannach.

1838       Johann Chrysostomus Senn’s poems are published.

Johann Senn: poems
When Senn’s poems were published in 1838 in Innsbruck, he could only present a fraction of his oeuvre to the public; the overwhelming majority of lyrics were censored. Indeed, none of the pantheistic poems have been published to date. The censorship of the Metternich era succeeded in passing on to posterity only a very vague and approximate image of this poet.

1839       Robert Schumann visits Schubert’s brother Ferdinand to examine the posthumous manuscripts. As a consequence, Mendelssohn gives the premiere of the ‘Great’ C major Symphony in Leipzig in March. Breitkopf & Härtel publishes a four-hand piano arrangement and the orchestral parts one year later and the full score in 1849. Ferdinand Schubert’s memoirs of Schubert’s life appear in Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

The ‘Great’ C major Symphony (D 944), March 1828
It is thanks to the efforts of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy that Schubert’s ‘Great’ C major Symphony (D 944) was first performed, the concert taking place in Leipzig in 1839. Visiting Ferdinand early in 1839, Schumann had been able to inspect some of Schubert’s unpublished musical works and to persuade Ferdinand to put both the ‘Small’ and the ‘Great’ C major Symphonies at his disposal. For the ‘Small’ Symphony, Ferdinand was able to supply the completely written-out orchestral parts. Nevertheless Mendelssohn, then conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, decided to put the ‘Great’ C major Symphony on the programme of a concert in March, although he received the score only in mid-February and had to have all the parts written out. As a result he only had a few weeks to rehearse a work which presented a major challenge even to this seasoned orchestra. Breitkopf published the orchestral parts (1839/1840) and the engraved score (1849) on the basis of Ferdinand’s copy.
Schumann first heard the work in rehearsal before a repeat performance in December, and wrote about it with great enthusiasm to his fiancée Clara:
‘Today I was in bliss: in the rehearsal a symphony by Franz Schubert was played. [...] It is impossible to describe it to you. The instruments are all human voices, and it’s ingenious beyond measure, and this instrumentation, Beethoven notwithstanding – and this length, like a novel in four volumes, longer than the Ninth Symphony [...].’ And his review for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik contained the following passage (often inaccurately quoted): ‘And the heavenly length of the symphony, like a novel in four volumes by Jean Paul perhaps, which can never come to an end for the best of reasons: the reader goes on creating afterwards.’

1842       Publication of Franz von Schober’s poems. First publication of Schubert’s letters and other documents. One Schubert letter had been published shortly after Schubert’s death as part of a tribute to his Piano Trio op. 100 in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (the letter had been addressed to Probst, the Trio’s publisher) and Ferdinand Schubert had quoted another one in a schoolbook in 1833. In 1839, Robert Schumann in Leipzig brought about the publication of a range of other Schubert documentation, including the famous letter in which Schubert, then a Stadtkonvikt pupil, begged his brother for bread rolls (see above), as well as Mein Traum. Other letters by Schubert were then published in Austria in 1843; by this time his friends and other addressees could count on substantial interest on the part of admirers and the public, and little by little they sold off their treasures. Many a source disappeared in the process, and many others were published only in part or not at all, because one feared the contents were too private, could harm the composer’s standing or compromise friends who were still alive. Since Otto Erich Deutsch’s final edition of Schubert documents in 1964, which saw the publication of 74 Schubert letters (including short notes), five more letters from private or public collections have come to light. No specific information is available about the contents of a still unpublished love-letter by Schubert (private collection).

1843       Louis Rocca in Leipzig issues an index of printed works by Schubert. The Wiener Männergesang-Verein is founded. An edition of Johann Mayrhofer’s poems is published by Ernst von Feuchtersleben.

1846       The Adagio in E flat for piano, violin and cello op. 148 (D 897) is published by Diabelli with the title ‘Nocturne’. Schubert’s Mass in G (D 167) is published in Prague by Marco Berra in a vocal arrangement, ostensibly as the work of the music director of St Vitus Cathedral, Robert Führer. Two lithographic portraits of Schubert are made by Joseph Kriehuber.

1848       Several Schubert manuscripts are lost in the turmoil of the Revolution as fellow lodgers in Joseph Hüttenbrenner’s burn various bundles of papers.

1850       Premiere and publication of the String Quintet by Joseph Hellmesberger (et al).

Joseph Hellmesberger’s efforts on behalf of the String Quintet
The only reference to the composition of the String Quintet is to be found in a letter of Schubert’s to the Leipzig-based publisher Heinrich Albert Probst in early October 1828, at a time when the composer was working on settings of poems by Heine and Rellstab. In the letter, he offers Probst a quintet and reports that is to be ‘rehearsed in the next few days’. The possibility of the Quintet becoming known shortly after Schubert’s death, or even through Schumann’s intervention in 1839, was prevented by the publisher Diabelli. Diabelli had accepted the manuscript from Ferdinand Schubert in November 1829 and prepared it for publication. However, the work then vanished in the publisher’s archive until Joseph Hellmesberger discovered it there in 1850 and immediately brought about its performance. A few years later the Quintet appeared in print, this edition being the only surviving version since Schubert’s original manuscript is now lost. Joseph Hellmesberger, founder of the string quartet that bore his name, did much to promote the work. He was the son of Schubert’s violinist friend Johann Georg Hellmesberger, and was familiar with Schubert’s chamber music oeuvre from his childhood days, although Schubert at this time was primarily known as a composer of songs. ‘Hellmesberger’s achievements as first violin in the quartet were incomparable. He could coax out of his violin certain indefinable, fascinating effects, for example in the C major Quintet by Schubert, such as I have never heard since.’ Joseph Sulzer, Serious and Gay Recollections of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna 1910.

1851       Stockhausen sings a substantial portion of Winterreise in London. In the play version of Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, the ritornello from Schubert’s ‘Marguerite’ (Gretchen am Spinnrad) is quoted, one of the most popular German songs in Paris salons.

1852       The first Schubert medallion is stamped by Joseph Edgar Böhm. Although Austrian coins bore portraits only of crowned heads from the Habsburg imperial family, an exception was made in 1928 on the 100^th anniversary of Schubert’s death, when a two-schilling Schubert coin was minted. The 150^th anniversary was marked by the appearance of a 50 schilling silver coin with Schubert’s portrait.

1854       An incomplete choral score of the German Mass is published under the title Das deutsche Hochamt. Premiere of Alfonso und Estrella under Franz Liszt at the Grand Ducal Court Theatre in Weimar in the presence of Franz von Schober.

1856       After Mendelssohn’s unsuccessful attempts to introduce the ‘Great’ C major Symphony to England (there was one private performance for the nobility in 1844), August Manns performs the symphony at Crystal Palace in 1856 but spreads the four movements over several evenings. Julius Stockhausen sings Die schöne Müllerin in Vienna – probably the first complete performance of the cycle.

Eduard Hanslick discusses Julius Stockhausen’s recital of Die schöne Müllerin in Vienna in 1856
‘Stockhausen bade farewell to the public, doing so with the simplest programme in the world. Instead of the usual medley of pieces which do not belong together, we read on the concert bill simply: ‘Die schöne Müllerin’, a song-cycle by Franz Schubert. This idea was, as far as we know, a new one; that it was also a happy one was shown by the truly surprising number of people attending the concert. As though by silent arrangement, all true devotees of German music came to this performance, which was a veritable Schubert festival in all but name.’ |  Eduard Hanslick, History of Concert Life in Vienna, 1870

Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’, as an early interpreter of Die schöne Müllerin
The opera and lieder singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887), celebrated throughout Europe, was one of the first women to venture to perform Die schöne Müllerin. This is all the more significant for the fact that she possessed, according to Eduard Hanslick’s testimony, a ‘graceful, naive, softly elegiac’ voice.

1857/58   Ferdinand Luib sends a questionnaire to Schubert’s friends and acquaintances as part of his research for a biography.

1859       Ferdinand Schubert dies. Johann Herbeck discovers sections of the manuscript of Lazarus (D 689).

Preservation of the unpublished works
After the death of Ferdinand Schubert, the still extraordinarily significant collection of Schubert manuscripts was initially confiscated in order to cover an outstanding debt of 1,000 florins. While some manuscripts only just escaped destruction at the hands of unqualified takers (partly as packing material), conductor Johann Herbeck and the future Schubert biographer Heinrich Kreißle intervened to save the ‘Nachlass’ – the collection of unpublished works. After changing hands several times, these manuscripts found their way into public Vienna collections and to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

1860/61   Heinrich Kreißle from Hellborn presents initials findings of his research on Schubert, entitled A Biographical Sketch.

1861       The Singspiel Die Verschwornen receives its concert premiere in Vienna, in the presence of the librettist, and its stage premiere in Frankfurt am Main.

1862       First plans for a Schubert statue in the Vienna Stadtpark. Johann Herbeck and the Wiener Männergesang-Verein perform the German Mass in the Court church of St Augustine in an arrangement for four male voices. The baritone Julius Stockhausen and the pianist and composer Carl Reinecke give Die schöne Müllerin (D 795) on 25 March, in which the prologue, epilogue and the three Wilhelm Müller poems not set by Schubert are declaimed. Stockhausen repeats this programme in 1864 before a 2,000 strong audience in the Gürzenich hall in Cologne. Moritz von Schwind produces the drawings of the ‘Lachner scroll’ to celebrate Franz Lachner’s 25 years as Kapellmeister at the Munich opera house.

1863       First exhumation of Schubert’s and Beethoven’s remains in the presence of Schubert’s brother Andreas. A record was taken of the exhumation, during which the bones of Beethoven and Schubert were examined and compared. Premiere of the fragment Lazarus under Johann Herbeck in the Redoutensaal. Founding of the Wiener Schubertbund.

1864       Schubert appears as a stage character for the first time in Franz von Suppé’s operetta Franz Schubert. The libretto is the work of Johann von Päumann, who invents the legend of the composer being inspired to write Die schöne Müllerin by the Höldrichmühle, a mill converted to an inn at Mödling near Vienna.

1865       Johann Herbeck, who had known since 1860 that the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony in B minor (D 759) was in the possession of Anselm Hüttenbrenner, obtains the manuscript from him, sees to its publication and conducts the premiere. First Schubert biography by Heinrich Kreißle von Hellborn.

1867       Johann Herbeck plans to complete and orchestrate the draft of the score of Der Graf von Gleichen (D 918) which he has uncovered. With the first performance of the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony and of the reconstructed music to Rosamunde, a new era of Schubert reception dawns in England.

George Grove and Arthur Sullivan as pioneers of Schubert in England
The writer on music George Grove, famous for his Dictionary of Music, consulted Arthur Sullivan, later to achieve fame as an operetta composer, when he was researching music history on the Continent and looking for Schubert sources in Vienna, including portions of Rosamunde then lost.

1868       Moritz von Schwind paints A Schubert Evening at von Spaun’s (colour sketch and sepia drawing). Schwind paints frescos in the newly built Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper, today Staatsoper) on the Ringstraße, decorating a lunette with Schubert motifs.

1871       Start of a ‘critically correct’ (incomplete) Gesamtausgabe of Schubert’s lieder by the Leipzig publisher Carl Friedrich Peters. The seven-volume edition, frequently reprinted and in the 1880s revised and extended by Max Friedlaender, has a decisive influence on the Schubert repertoire. Moritz von Schwind dies.

1872       Unveiling of the Schubert monument by Carl Kundmann in the Vienna Stadtpark.

Joseph von Spaun on the planned Schubert monument
‘A few days ago a concert of only Schubert’s compositions was given for the benefit of the Schubert monument […]. – The monument will stand at the centre of the beautiful Stadtpark, and since substantial funds have already been raised, the monument can be a very worthy one. Here, we too little appreciated what we had in Schubert. Now we know what we have lost in him.’ | Joseph von Spaun to Franz von Schober, 22 March 1864

1873       August Reissmann publishes his study of Schubert’s works, focusing on the lieder. As ‘artistic director’ of the Vienna world exhibition of 1873, Johannes Brahms refuses to rehearse an all-Schubert programme for a special festival concert.

1874       Gustav Nottebohm produces a first ‘Thematic Index of Published Compositions by Franz Schubert’, ordered by opus number. It had been preceded by incomplete catalogues made in Schubert’s lifetime.

1875       First publication of the first version of Schubert’s Missa solemnis in A flat (D 678) by Friedrich Schreiber (final version appearing in the original Gesamtausgabe in 1887). The Mass is thought to have been premiered in 1822 by Ferdinand Schubert in Altlerchenfeld Church; this, however, remains unproven.

1876       Constantin von Wurzbach writes an important early article on Schubert as an entry in his 60 volume Biographical Lexicon of the Austrian Empire.

1881       First lavishly produced facsimile of a Schubert manuscript: a fair copy of the 3^rd version of Die Forelle (‘The Trout’), the copy with the inkblot that was made for Joseph Hüttenbrenner. It appeared in the Manuscript and Portrait Gallery of Musical Heroes. Concert cycle in London presenting all Schubert’s symphonies – at that time still partly unpublished. Several early symphonies received their official premiere during this cycle. The fragment of the E major Symphony (D 729) was played in an orchestration by John Francis Barnett, and the ‘Unfinished’ was given as a four-movement symphony using the first entr’acte from Rosamunde.

1882       Franz von Schober dies in Dresden.

Schubert in the obituaries and memoirs of his friends
Franz von Schober’s surviving posthumous papers, the major part of which is now kept at Vienna (Stadt- und Landesbibliothek) and Hamburg, represents by far the most important source of biographical documentation on Schubert in his mature years. This is so in spite of the fact that Schober (like Bruchmann, Jenger, Kupelwieser, Lachner, Schlechta, Schwind and Senn) never formally recorded his memories of Schubert. By contrast, Joseph Hüttenbrenner, Johann Mayrhofer, Leopold Sonnleithner, Joseph von Spaun, Eduard von Bauernfeld and Anton Schindler did write down their recollections, doing so at a relatively early date, while other friends did so towards the end of their lives at the instigation of biographers.

1884-97   The first complete edition (Gesamtausgabe) is published in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel, edited by Johannes Brahms, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Johann Fuchs, etc. Some unfinished or only sketched compositions are not incorporated.

1888       Second exhumation of Schubert’s remains and reinterment in Vienna’s Central Cemetery, where the Schubert memorial by Carl Kundmann is erected. The Schubert bust by Dialer is replaced by a copy, the original going to the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (it is now in the Schubert Museum of Vienna). After consultation with the scholar Max Friedlaender, Julius Stockhausen sings the songs of Winterreise in the order in which they stand in Müller’s poem cycle: Die Post following Der Lindenbaum, and Frühlingstraum following Die Nebensonnen.

1890       Public premiere of the choral works Tantum ergo in E flat (D 962) and aria for tenor and chorus ‘Intende voci’ (D 963), published by Max Friedlaender, at Eisenach municipal theatre.

1896       Der vierjährige Posten, revised by Robert Hirschfeld, is premiered at Dresden Court Opera on the 105^th anniversary of the birth of Theodor Körner. Gustav Burchard: Franz Schubert (Singspiel, Berlin)

1897       Exhibition and commemoration of the centenary of Schubert’s birth. A competition is announced for the art work for a Schubert memorial in Vienna City Hall. Gustav Klimt is among Fin de siècle artists taking part, but a painting by Julius Schmid is chosen. The Schubert opera Fierrabras receives its premiere in Karlsruhe in an edition prepared by Felix Mottl. Heinrich Zoellner: Schubertiade (Singspiel).

1898       In London, Edith Clegg records the first Schubert lieder on gramophone: Ave Maria and Heidenröslein. In 1901 Leo Slezak records Ungeduld on gramophone. Ludwig Wüllner organises four historical ‘Schubert Evenings’ in Munich. Felix Mottl in Karlsruhe publishes a version of Die Zauberharfe combined with other Schubert music as an accompaniment to Ferdinand Raimund’s play Die gefesselte Phantasie (revived at the Vienna Burgtheater in 1936 and at the Theater in der Josephstadt in 1978).

1903       Arnold Schoenberg makes a four-hand piano arrangement of Schubert’s Rosamunde music.

Domestic music-making before the recording age and as a means of studying scores
The literature for piano duet included the repertoire of arrangements, which remained highly popular well into the 20^th century. Arrangements for four hands served several purposes at once: it permitted the adaptation of major orchestral works for the piano in a manner musically more adequate than was possible in a transcription for two-hands, and it allowed two pianists of differing abilities to play together repertoire that was otherwise only to be heard in the concert hall or theatre. Many 19^th century composers produced piano arrangements of their works in their own interest and also to the benefit of their publisher. These arrangements would often achieve considerably better sales than the original editions. It is not always the case, incidentally, that arrangements made by the composer are preferable to the work of professional arrangers, as can be seen by Carl Czerny’s four-hand version of the overture to Fierrabras (D 796) which is by no means inferior to Schubert’s own.

1904       Carl Costa/Carl Antropp: Franz Schubert (popular play).

1905       Otto Nowak (1875-1945), a genre and portrait painter from Vienna, joins the Wiener Schubertbund as a practising member. In the decades that followed, Nowak became one of the most prolific painters of Schubert and greatly contributed to the popularisation of the image of Schubert as an unworldly ‘Schwammerl’ à la Bartsch and Berté. He decisively influenced the centennial visualisation of Schubert through his artistic qualification, tasteless though it was.

1908       Premiere of the opera Die Bürgschaft in a concert performance by the Wiener Schubertbund. First complete recording of Die schöne Müllerin by the tenor Franz Naval. Leo Heller / Richard Wurmfeld / Béla Laszky: Schubert (episode in one act).

1911       Rudolf Hans Bartsch: Schwammerl (novel).

1912       Arnold Zweig: Die Novellen um Claudia (novel with chapter ‘Die Sonatine’ on D 384). Julian Raudnitz: Horch, horch, die Lerch’ (Singspiel).

1913       The Viennese cultural historian Otto Erich Deutsch (1883-1967) publishes the first of a projected four volumes of documents on Schubert’s life and work. It is followed in 1914 by documents about Schubert that appeared in his lifetime, and in 1946 by an edition with commentary in English. Stage premiere of the fragment Claudine von Villa Bella at the Wieden Gemeindehaus by the Wiener Schubertbund. 50^th anniversary of the Wiener Schubertbund.
Die Verschwornen as a reflection of the zeitgeist during the First World War – c. 1914?

1915       Deutsch strives to have Die Verschwornen revived in the theatre on account of its topical subject-matter. Not surprisingly the director of the Court Opera, Hans Gregor, was not to be persuaded. After all the tale, drawn from Aristophanes, essentially pleads against war – regardless of the fact that Castelli, in line with most latter-day adapters, takes an ironic stance towards the women’s wish to stop their husbands fighting, and lets the menfolk win the ‘domestic war’.

1916       The operetta Das Dreimäderlhaus by Heinrich Berté is premiered in Vienna and is a sensational success around the world. The operetta consists entirely of music by Schubert, especially his instrumental works.

Das Dreimäderlhaus as a major contribution towards perceptions of Schubert?
Although Berté’s operetta largely reproduces clichéd views of Schubert, it had an extraordinarily big effect on Schubert reception in the first half of the 20^th century. After its 1916 premiere at Vienna’s Raimundtheater, it went on to receive more than 80,000 performances around the world.

How did it come to Das Dreimäderlhaus?
Documentary evidence of personal contacts between Schubert’s circle and the four Fröhlich sisters and Grillparzer is extremely rare, although it is certain that there often were meetings and private musical gatherings that were arranged orally and not mentioned in diaries or letters. The attempt by Grillparzer and the Fröhlichs to protect their privacy by not revealing any information encouraged a host of authors to speculate on relations between the poet and the composer on the one hand and the Fröhlich sisters and further women, on the other, and to present embellished accounts of them in their fiction. While Eduard von Bauernfeld proposed in vain that wild speculation should be countered with a straightforward account of the actual relationships, the fictionalisation culminated in hugely popular reception-phenomena like Rudolf Hans Bartsch’s novel Schwammerl (1912) and Heinrich Berté’s operetta Das Dreimäderlhaus (1916).

The score of Das Dreimäderlhaus by Heinrich Berté
As an operetta Das Dreimäderlhaus is very cleverly constructed in every way. Berté made use of the experience of generations of arrangers, and at the same time his choice of subject was ideal in view of the prevailing nostalgia for old Austria and the Biedermeier era. Close examination of the ragbag of melodies used in the operetta reveals that Berté made most extensive use of Schubert’s instrumental music, specifically the piano works (which in their original version are by no means so overstated as they are in the operetta), quoting themes from the sonatas, German Dances and so forth. The quotation from the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy is in fact something of an exception.

1917       Richard Nordmann (pseud. for Margarete Langkamer): Schubert (scene).

1918       Stage premiere of Fernando in Magdeburg. Carl Lafite: Hannerl (a continuation of the operetta Dreimäderlhaus, premiered in 1928 at the Raimundtheater Vienna). Oscar Straus: Hannerl und Schubert (Singspiel, Hamburg). In Fritz Kortner’s silent film about Beethoven, Märtyrer seines Herzens, Schubert makes his celluloid debut in a minor role.

1920       Hans Buresch: Leise flehen meine Lieder (play with music in three acts).

1921       August Jurek: Hannerl vom Dreimäderlhaus (Singspiel, Vienna)

1922       Completion of the ‘Reliquie’ (Piano Sonata D 840) by Ernst Krenek at the instigation of Eduard Erdmann.

1923       Gustav Mayer: ’S Hannerl vom Dreimäderlhaus (silent film).

1925       Joseph Boden: Wiener Schubertiade (Singspiel, Heidelberg).

1926-30   Alfred Deutsch-German: Franz Schuberts letzte Liebe (film about Schubert and Paganini)

1928       Large-scale commemoration of the centenary of Schubert’s death.
10^th festival of the Deutscher Sängerbund in Vienna at which thousands of people sing Schubert lieder together. An international competition is announced in the USA seeking the completion of Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony in B minor (D 759). Productions of many Schubert operas, a concert version of Rosamunde with narrator (by Engelbrecht-Schwarz and O. E. Deutsch), and also the first staged performances of Die Freunde von Salamanca (with dialogues by G. Ziegler) in Halle/Sachsen as well as Lazarus in Essen. Schubert Singspiels and operettas: Ernst Heinrich Bethge, Franz Schuberts erste Liebe und Bertl; J. and H. Neudorfer, Künstlerlos; Hermann Hoffmann, Unser Franz Schubert; Max Schimann, 1828–Schubert–1928; Willi Reeg, Franz Schubert; Ferdinand Soeser, Franz Schuberts musikalische Sendung; Oskar Staudigl, Schuberts Heimkehr; Viktor Hess, Vreneli in Grinzing; Emil Berté, Der Musicus von Lichtental; W. Herrmann, Am Brunnen vor dem Tore; Julius Bittner, Der unsterbliche Franz. Films: Das Mädchen aus der Höldrichsmühle; Der Schulmeister von Lichtental (Austria/England); Franz Schubert und seine Zeit; Franz Schubert und sein lachendes Wien. Theodor Adorno: ‘Schubert’ (essay).

1931       ‘Rediscovery’ of the German Dances (D 820), which Anton Webern orchestrates.

1933       Willi Forst: Leise flehen meine Lieder (first sound film about Schubert, with Hans Jaray, Martha Eggerth, Luise Ullrich, Hans Moser), English version: The Unfinished Symphony (1934).

1934       Premiere of Felix Weingartner’s elaboration of the Symphony in E major (D 729) by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. An English-language version of Das Dreimäderlhaus is filmed, entitled Blossom Time (director: Paul L. Stein) with Richard Tauber as Schubert.

1936/37   Stefan Zweig is forced to sell off and give away his autograph collection, which includes much important Schubertiana. E. W. Emo: Drei Mäderl um Schubert (sound film with Paul Hörbiger, Maria Andergast, Gustav Walter).

1938       Willi Kahl publishes an extensive bibliography of writings on Schubert in the period 1829-1928. Otto Erich Deutsch leaves Austria in the wake of the anschluss and continues his work on Schubert in exile in England. During the war and in the immediate aftermath, numerous sources in private collections are lost without trace; much is systematically destroyed.

1940/41   Lotte Lehmann makes a gramophone recording of the complete Winterreise; likewise Die schöne Müllerin in 1942.        

1943       Richard Strauss notates a Kupelwieser waltz which he hears from Maria Mautner-Markhof, a descendant of Leopold Kupelwieser, in whose family it has been handed down.

1947       In his first lieder recitals Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings Winterreise in Berlin. Fischer-Dieskau made six recordings of Winterreise between 1951 and 1985. Emmerich Hanus: Seine einzige Liebe (film with Franz Böheim).

1949       Premiere of Der Spiegelritter (Radio Beromünster in Bern, Switzerland). All other operas and Singspiels, including fragments, are recorded by the same broadcaster; most recordings are later deleted.

1951       Otto Erich Deutsch publishes the first complete thematic catalogue of Schubert’s compositions in English. The works are listed in chronological order, unlike previous catalogues e.g. by Nottebohm.

1953       Walter Kolm-Velté: Franz Schubert – Ein Leben in zwei Sätzen (colour film with Heinrich Schweiger, Aglaja Schmid, Hans Thimig).

1956       Radio recording of Alfonso und Estrella conducted by Nino Sanzogno in Italian for RAI in Rome.

1957       Otto Erich Deutsch publishes friends’ reminiscences of Schubert as the third part of his Schubert documentation (ongoing since 1913).

1958       Das Dreimäderlhaus is filmed by Ernst Marischka in a Singspiel version (with Karlheinz Böhm, Johanna Matz, Ewald Balser, Magda Schneider, Gustav Knuth, Rudolf Schock). Premiere of the Schubert-Shakespeare opera Die Wunderinsel in Stuttgart, with Fritz Wunderlich performing. The opera is put together by Kurt Honolka largely from music from Alfonso und Estrella.

1964       Otto Erich Deutsch (†1967) publishes his collection of Schubert documents in German for the first time, with commentary and register, in advance of the founding of a research institute in Tübingen to work on an edition of the compositions.

1966       The Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition) is published by the Internationale Schubert-Gesellschaft e.V (Bärenreiter, Kassel), edited by Walther Dürr, Arnold Feil, Christa Landon, Werner Aderhold, Walburga Litschauer, Manuela Jahrmärker, Michael Kube, Christine Martin and external contributors.

1969       Walther Dürr launches the New Edition of Schubert’s lieder volumes, retaining the opus groupings of lieder published by Schubert himself. Christa Landon (1921 – 1977) discovers around 50 Schubert autographs in the archives of the Vienna Männergesang-Verein.

1969-71   Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (*1925) and Gerald Moore (1899-1987) record most of Schubert’s lieder for Deutsche Grammophon.

1971       Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau publishes his study Auf den Spuren der Schubert-lieder. Werden - Wesen - Wirkung. Premiere of the fragment Sakuntala in an arrangement by Fritz Racek at the Vienna Festwochen festival.

1976       First Schubertiade festival in Hohenems (founded in 1975 by Hermann Prey with the aim of performing Schubert’s complete works in chronological order over 12 years). Alfred Brendel: Nachdenken über Musik (essay, incl. ‘Schubert’s Piano Sonatas 1822-1828’). Friederike Mayröcker: Der Tod und das Mädchen (radio play), Wetter-Zettelchen (a Schubert portrait in the form of a text collage).

1978       150^th anniversary of Schubert’s death. The composer is honoured in countless concert series and exhibitions in Austria and abroad; in-depth academic studies on Schubert appear to mark the anniversary, among them a revised German-language edition of Otto Erich Deutsch’s thematic catalogue as part of the New Schubert Edition (ed. Werner Aderhold and the editors of the New Schubert Edition). Stage premiere of a revised version of Des Teufels Lustschloss in Potsdam. Titus Leber: Fremd bin ich eingezogen (film). Eberhard Schoener: Sakuntala (TV film of ballet with electronic music)          

1979       Stefan Hermlin: Abendlicht (novel with a paraphrase of Des Baches Wiegenlied, D 795, 20).

1980       Eva Strittmatter: ‘Der Wanderer’ (essay on Schubert’s Winterreise).

1981       Mauricio Kagel: Aus Deutschland. Eine Lieder-Oper. Premiere at Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1981 Fierrabras at Opéra d’Hermance (Geneva).

1982       Premiere of Brian Newbould’s realisation (orchestration) of the E major Symphony (D 729). Fierrabras in Augsburg, followed by performances in Vienna (1988) and a revival of Alfonso und Estrella in Graz (1991), after a first English-language attempt in Reading in 1977. Alfred Hrdlicka: Schubert-Arbeiten.         

1983       The Vienna Schubertiade (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) is founded by Hermann Prey with the aim of performing all Schubert’s works in partly chronological order. Wolfgang Hildesheimer: Der Tod und das Mädchen (collage).

1985       Elmar Budde and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau begin the gradual publication of a revised edition of Schubert lieder (C. F. Peters, Frankfurt/Main). Concert performance of the opera fragment Adrast at the Wiener Schubert-Tage festival conducted by Helmut Froschauer.

1986       Fritz Lehner: Mit meinen heißen Tränen (three-part TV series with Udo Samel, Traugott Buhre, Therese Affolter), cinema version Notturno (1989).

1987       Foundation of the International Franz Schubert Institute (IFSI), based in the Vienna house where Schubert died. Numerous academic publications appear, including facsimiles of several more or less inaccessible compositions.

1987-2000         Graham Johnson launches a series of recordings of Schubert’s complete lieder-œuvre on the London-based CD label Hyperion. Performing with internationally renowned vocal soloists, he plays the piano part on all 37 CDs.

1988       First publication of Der Graf von Gleichen as a facsimile of Schubert’s manuscript draft (introduced by Ernst Hilmar). Peter Härtling: Der Wanderer

1989       Luciano Berio: Rendering – a rendering of the symphonic fragment D 936A.

1995       Des Teufels Lustschloss: premiere of the original version at Zurich Opera conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

1996       Edison Denisov’s realisation, with new composition, of the last two acts of Lazarus is premiered in Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling. Stage premiere of Wolfgang Hocke’s completion of Schubert’s opera fragment Der Graf von Gleichen at Meiningen Staatstheater.

1997       The 200^th anniversary of Schubert’s birth is marked by concert series and major exhibitions in Vienna, Japan and – as part of the Schubertiade – in Lindau and Schloss Achberg, which bring together exhibits from public and private collections in Austria and abroad. Des Teufels Lustschloss is given at the Wiener Festwochen (a guest performance by Zurich Opera) and a new production of Alfonso und Estrella is staged at the Theater an der Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. International conferences on Schubert-related subjects are held to mark the bicentenary, and reference works and facsimiles of important works are published. Norbert Beilharz: Rosamunde (TV film). Petr Weigl: Die Winterreise (TV film with Brigitte Fassbaender).

2000       Concert performance of Rosamunde by Helmina von Chézy and Franz Schubert in a version by Christoph Schwandt (with Gert Westphal) is broadcast on West German Radio.

2001       Elfriede Jelinek adapts and paraphrases Helmina von Chézy’s Rosamunde text for a concert performance at the Berlin Philharmonie.