Franz Schubert may be the least understood of the great composers. For decades after he died in 1828, at the age of thirty-one, most of Schubert�s work was unknown. And when hundreds of Schubert�s compositions were first published in the late 1800�s, romantic legends about the composer suddenly became popular. Schubert was often described as a tortured but amiable genius--a nearsighted, portly cherub of a man who lived in abject poverty and found comfort only in a glass of wine.

As with many aspects of history, the truth is more complex. Schubert certainly had a difficult life, but he appears to have been happy simply to create music. He once said "I have come into the world for no purpose but to compose."

Schubert was born near Vienna in January 1797, just over five years after Mozart died. Like Mozart, Schubert seems to have been born with an amazing ability to create music in his head. He began composing at age eleven, and by sixteen had written his first symphony. When just nineteen years old, Schubert paid homage to his great predecessors, Mozart and Haydn, with a charming classical symphony, his Fifth Symphony in B-flat major.

Written when Schubert was just nineteen years old, the Fifth Symphony is full of melodies--the kinds of melodies that most other composers struggled to create. Schubert�s solo instrumental also has a song-like quality. One example is the Impromptu for piano in G-flat major, performed at last year�s Newport Music Festival by Segio Fiorentino, in one of his last appearances before his death in 1999.

Franz Schubert spent most of his days methodically writing music straight from his head since he never owned a piano to help with composition. At night, Schubert and his friends gathered for music and poetry. Schubert generally was the center of attention; his friends called themselves "Schubertians" and their nightly sessions were "Schubertiads." Chamber music for such intimate settings is the heart of Schubert�s music and today his single most popular chamber work is the Quintet in A for Piano and Strings, the "Trout" Quintet. Schubert wrote the quintet at the request of an amateur cellist who loved Schubert�s famous song, "Die Forelle"-- "The Trout"--and wanted a cello solo based on it. The fourth movement of the quintet is a set of variations on the "Trout" theme. Like many of Schubert�s six-hundred-plus songs, "Die Forelle" has a catchy melody. But "Performance Today"commentator Robert Kapilow explains that the apparent simplicity of this melody hides the deeper sentiments in Schubert�s music about the ambiguities of life. Schubert didn�t leave behind diaries or letters describing his inner feelings when he wrote his music; the music speaks for itself, often expressing a melancholy feeling.

In the months before he died in 1828, Schubert produced some of his most memorable music: the String Quintet in C minor, a cycle of songs called "Schwanengesang," or "Swan Song," and his three greatest piano sonatas.

Pianist Murray Perahia says the first of those three sonatas, in C minor, demonstrates that Schubert was �obsessed� with death in the final months of his life.

Ever since Schubert�s death, historians and musicologists have looked for clues to his musical genius in his bohemian lifestyle, his prolonged illnesses, and even the dozen or so houses in Vienna were he lived. Commentator Thomas Kelly made the pilgrimage in search of Schubert, and found a certain unevenness in how modern Viennese treat the memory of the great composer. Schubert�s birthplace is now a museum, but the house where he died is now a Volkswagen repair shop. Kelly suggests that the Volkswagen corporation might want to use as a theme song one of Schubert�s most famous melodies: "Das Wandern," or "The Rover," from his song cycle, "Die schoene Mullerin."

These songs tell the story of a young man who yearns unsuccessfully for the love of a miller�s daughter and in his sorrow throws himself into a stream. Schubert wrote most of the songs in 1823 when he was hospitalized, apparently suffering from syphilis. He described himself at that time as a "miserable, unhappy being." The music is more eloquent in describing the fate of a man confronting the realities of life. It�s perhaps as autobiographical a musical statement as he ever made.

Listen as Murray Perahia and Thomas Kelly discuss the life and work of Franz Schubert. Another Milestones of the Millenium online feature. (This audio segment requires the free RealPlayer 5.0 or higher. You can also listen with a 14.4 connection)