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Schubert’s piano sonatas span his creative life, from the No.1 D157 of 1815 to the three great sonatas of 1828 D958, 959 and 960. Schubert’s sonatas are a world away from Beethoven’s dramatic statements, and from the overtly virtuosic sonatas of Hummel and Weber. They contain some of his most profound music, the world of song never being far away. Drawing out the ever present patina of sadness, even in what sounds like ‘happy’music is essential if the performer is to understand this music. Some of his best loved works are for solo piano, and the Impromptus D899 and D935 are miniature masterworks, full of passion, drama, reflection and above all supreme lyricism.

Recordings made by Denon in the 1990s

Schubert’s two piano trios were composed late in his short life (his only trio prior to these is the short B flat trio movement D28 of 1812), probably in late 1827 and the summer of 1828, the year of his death. They are vast works, worthy of Schumann’s comment on Schubert’s Ninth Symphony of being of ‘heavenly length’. Although structured along similar lines to Beethoven’s piano trios, Schubert’s trios inhabit a different world to the older composer’s ‘Ghost’ or ‘Archduke’ works. Beethoven revelled in drama and complex and ingenious textures. Schubert concentrates instead on beautiful tunes, and eloquent dialogues between the three players. The music of the Austrian countryside permeates these works, and although they date from Schubert’s last months, they contain little of the world weariness and desolation of Winterreisse, the late sonatas or the proto-Mahlerian slow movement of the Tenth Symphony D936a. The trios gained popularity soon after their posthumous publication in the 1830s – and were championed by influential figures such as Schumann and Brahms. D898 benefited from an early gramophone recording in the 1920s by Cortot, Casals and Thibaud. The Notturno D897 has also proved popular, and started life as the slow movement to D898, but Schubert felt it was too long.

All seven of Schubert’s completed symphonies - plus the B minor fragment known as the ‘Unfinished’ - enjoy a popularity now which they haven‘t always had. Only the twentieth century gave these pieces the recognition they deserved and an appreciation of their true emotional depth.

All display his gift for pure and lovely melody, but there are great differences between the restraint of the earlier six symphonies and the last two, where he fully employed Romantic expression. His last symphony, the ‘Great’ C major Symphony, is both classic and romantic, combining the vitality of the classical period and the melancholy of his personality, the architecture of late 18th century classical music with an innovative and daring approach to structure, harmony and orchestration.

He mastered the symphonic form in his own way. This 4-CD set of the complete symphonies contains performances of symphony Nos 1- 4 by The Hanover Band, conducted by Roy Goodman. These are part of their acclaimed cycle, recorded in the warm acoustic of All Saints’ Church in Tooting, which was the first ever complete set of Schubert’s symphonies performed on historic instruments. Gramophone hailed the performances as ‘striking and exciting”, and “consistently bringing out the joy of the young Schubert’s inspiration.” Symphony Nos 5-6 and Nos 8-9 are performed with polish and vitality by the Camerata Salzburg, directed by the great Hungarian conductor and violinist, Sándor Végh.

One of the great ‘might have beens’ of the opera world is Franz Schubert. The composer of some 600 songs, he had a melodic gift and understanding of the human voice unmatched by any composer before or since. Although he had acquired a mastery of symphonic form, a suitable librettist for opera escaped him. Of his 19 operatic projects (the manuscript pages of some were inadvertently used by a servant to light a fire!), only Fierrabras of 1823 clung to the fringes of the repertoire, not being performed complete until 1980 in the US. Schubert always believed that operatic success was essential for his reputation.

The singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanka dates from 1815 when the composer was just 17, and was his seventh opera. The libretto was by Johann Mayrhofer, best remembered as the poet Schubert set into song some 47 times. The dialogue is now lost, but the slight love story is provided with customarily sunny and delightfully tuneful music by Schubert. This opera had its premiere in 1928, a full century after the composer’s death.

‘Beautiful singing by Mathis … Hermann Prey in excellent form … lovers of Schubert should not let slip the opportunity of hearing this … it is affectionately directed by Guschlbauer.’ Gramophone

Schubert was thé composer of songs, Lieder, of the romantic era. His vast oeuvre also included several song cycles. Die schöne Müllerin was the first one he wrote. Of course it is all about love, and here it does not end well…Peter Schreier sings , Walter Olbertz accompanies at the piano.

Schubert's reputation as a composer of solo lieder has tended to overshadow the works for two of more voices that he composed from the age of 14 to his last years. Some of these works includes four voices and choir, and they fall in to the category of domestic music making. The earliest date from his years as a pupil of Antonio Salieri, and may well have been intended as study works, others, such as the scena 'Antigone und Oedipe' D542 of 1817 was probably composed for friends, and is quite demanding of the performers.

The singers on these CDs represent some of the very best Schubert interpreters of the period -- and the recordings date from 1973. The accompanist is the incomparable Gerald Moore.

An Impromptu is a piece for piano solo, typical of the romantic era. Franz Schubert wrote eight of them. The second series of four was only published after his death. They are all on this single CD. Martijn van den Hoek is the pianist.

In a two week period in 1824, Schubert started and completed three of his greatest chamber works – the string quartets in A minor D804 and D minor D810 (Death and the Maiden), and the F major Octet. All three of the works from this short burst of creativity use material Schubert had used elsewhere – the song ‘Death and the Maiden’ in the D minor quartet, and themes from Rosamunde in the A major quartet. For the Octet he quotes from an Ave Maria from the following year, and in the fourth movement an aria from his opera ‘Die Freunde von Salamanka’ is used for the variations. In mood the Octet is the sunniest of the works from this period, and even though Schubert wrote that he was full of happiness for ‘the ray of sunlight for the past sweet days’, all the other works contain moments of darkness and foreshadow in places the bleakness that dominates the later piano sonatas, Winterreise and for example the slow movement of the sketched Tenth Symphony . The Octet was premiered in 1827, but not published until 1853.