Bernard Chasan ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Bill Strother writes of Schubert:
>
>>But I love him as one does a sweet child.  Mozart is an unbelievable
>>human, and Beethoven is a giant.
>
>A sweet child? Good grief!!!!  This is the master who set out to set German
>poetry to music and wrote some of the greatest songs ever.  Winterreise was
>not produced by a sweet child.  The octet, the cello quintet, the piano
>sonatas were not produced by a sweet child.

They most certainly weren't.  And you didn't even mention the late string
quartets or the last two symphonies.

Let us recall that Schubert died at 31. By which age:

Haydn had composed his first dozen or so symphonies and first dozen string
quartets (but not the "Sun" quartets) and a handful of piano sonatas;
Beethoven had composed his Op.18 quartets, one symphony, three piano
concertos and the sonatas up to Op.22 or so; Mozart had composed most
of his mature masterpieces.

Given the direction of Schubert's incredible last year, who knows what
he might have done given another five or ten...

Deryk Barker
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