Schubert Playlist

Franz Schubert lived a short but incredibly musically productive life in the 19th century. He is perhaps most famous as a pivotal innovator of the Lied, or the classical art song. Lieder, loosely defined, are poems (typically on romantic and/or Romantic themes) set to music. The composer usually takes a pre-existing poem and explores it musically, most commonly for a combination of piano and solo voice. 

Schubert wrote over 600 Lieder in his 31 years of life. He also wrote symphonies, chamber music, works for solo piano, and various other instrumental works. 

Why do I love Schubert so much? To be honest, I don’t love all music from the Romantic era. Sometimes it seems a little…self-centered. A little over the top and gushy—so dramatic that I start to doubt how genuine it is. But Schubert really, really pulls on my heartstrings.

I think a big factor is how closely tied he is to Classical music. (His lifespan overlaps with Haydn, perhaps the quintessential composer of the Classical period). Even at his most heart-on-sleeve, he is still an early Romantic, nowhere near as navel-gazey as late Romantics can be. Most of his music is deeply rooted in Classical forms—and yet he also set hundreds of angsty, dramatic poems to music!

Schubert is full of little quirks and contradictions, not limited to this Classical/Romantic dichotomy. One of my favorites of his paradoxes is that his sensitivity and subtlety can absolutely knock you off your feet (I love a composer who sneaks up on you!). He is also both too long and too short: his symphonies and chamber works can be staggeringly long, but his Lieder are often astonishingly brief, especially in contrast to the weight of their emotional impact. Much of his music feels a bit nostalgic—certainly full of longing, whether that longing is for a person, an ideal, or a time past—but it’s not overly sentimental. The longing seems tempered by realism, it’s not too starry-eyed. Schubert is truly the king of bittersweetness.

Here are a few Schubert pieces that I love—organized by mood, a choose your own adventure of sorts:

If you want a little taste of heartbreak: Gute Nacht — a classic tale of love lost, set to music with Schubert’s trademark sensitivity

If you want to go all in on heartbreak: Winterreise (Winter Journey) — the song cycle that Gute Nacht begins, basically an entire collection of devastating, gorgeous, and devastatingly gorgeous, songs. The lyrics (poems by Müller) are from the perspective of a heartbroken man journeying away from his former love in the dead of winter (oof)

If you’re looking for something more cheerful: The Trout Quintet — (it’s nicknamed The Trout because it uses a theme from a Lied of the same name). This is Schubert in a pretty jolly mood, and it is SO charming

Do you want a piece that will sneak up on you a bit? Unfinished Symphony — this piece absolutely delivers on the bittersweetness of its title—although to be fair Schubert didn’t name it that, it’s just literally an unfinished symphony (but it’s so good it gets played all the time anyway)! I absolutely love it, especially the first movement. (One of the rare times I’d suggest looking at the YouTube comments, it seems this piece has a similar effect on a lot of listeners)

And finally, if you are in search of transcendence: the Cello Quintet — one of the last pieces Schubert wrote, this is just sublime, heavenly, a piece to fall head-over-heels in love with...it’s hard to speak of it in non-hyperbolic terms, it’s just the best!