biography

Franz Schubert was born on January 31, 1797 in Vienna. The highly gifted Austrian composer was accepted into the Vienna Court Orchestra and the Stadtkonvikt in 1808, where he was taught composition by the Italian composer Antonio Salieri, among others.

When Schubert could no longer be used as a choirboy in 1813 with his voice breaking, he became his father's school assistant. He gave elementary lessons for three years until his friend Franz von Schober enabled him to devote himself entirely to music. Schober let him live with him and supported him financially. Only once in his life did Schubert decide to give a public concert, and that was on March 26, 1828 at the Musikverein in Vienna. The program included his piano trio in B flat major, the first movement of a string quartet, a serenade for alto solo, women's choir and piano, a double choir for men's voices and a selection of his songs. The concert was a great artistic and financial success.

However, many of his compositions were only performed at so-called Schubertiaden, small gatherings of like-minded friends. Schubert died in 1828 at the age of just 31 from an acute typhus infection.

At the center of Schubert's work are his songs. Zumsteeg's songs provided the essential impetus for this. Schubert's first composition, the 1811 song Hagar's Klage D 5, is based on Zumsteeg's 1797 song Hagar's Klage in der Wüste Berseba. As a court choir boy, Schubert became acquainted with the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Although he liked the great symphonies, the song increasingly became the focus of his work. It was not until 1822 that Schubert found himself in instrumental music and composed, among other things, the Symphony in B minor (D 759) and the Great Symphony in C major (D 944).

Schubert's oeuvre includes works for a wide variety of instrumentations. Chamber music, stage works, church music, piano pieces, orchestral music or choral works. The best-known works include "Rosamunde" (play), the songs "Heidenröslein", "Erlkönig" and "Die Schöne Müllerin", Stabat Mater (choral music) and Symphony No. 7 "Unfinished". Franz Schubert died on November 19, 1828 in Vienna.

(from: obrassoconcerts.ch)

Franz Schubert and Hellas

Franz Schubert was born in the middle of the period that we now know as the classics and that was largely shaped by Schiller and Goethe. This love of the classics and the spirit of Greco-Roman antiquity pervades Schubert's musical work. He has written more than 30 songs on the subject of "Hellas".

His generation included revolutionary spirits who, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, dreamed of liberating the peoples of Europe. He set texts by Theodor Körner to music, but above all by Wilhelm Müller. The poet of "The Beautiful Miller" and the "Winter Journey" was also known as the "Greek Miller" because he wholeheartedly supported the Greeks' struggle for liberation from Ottoman rule.

Above all, his texts entitled "Greek Songs" are well known, but unfortunately they were not set to music. Fortunately, there are thematically related songs by Franz Schubert, which we have selected for our competition.

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