Robert's question may look simple but in fact is much more profound than
meets the eye.  There's no superficial answer: the purpose of asking is
to make us ponder what makes Lieder interesting, and where Schubert
stands in the scheme of things.

"Is Schubert the best of all Lieder composers?"

Without Schubert transforming the status and artistic nature of song,
we'd have no Lieder as we know it now.  He was the innovator, the one
who made the real connection between setting a poem to music as art in
itself.  Beethoven wrote the first art songs, but it was Schubert almost
single handedly who developed the genre.  He inspired those who followed
- Schumann promoted his work when it went into obscurity, Hugo Wolf
refused to set any poem he thought Schubert had set particularly well.
Instinctively visionary, he may well have been on the verge of new
directions, with Winterreise and Auf dem Strom.

"Is there something you don't like about his Lieder composing?"

Being the pioneer in the genre he wasn't specially discriminatory:
some of the very long strophic songs can be wearing, sometimes he
employs cliches, sometimes he sets less than ideal poets.
Conversely, he can turn lesser poetry into great art, even as he
sometimes misses the point of some more subtle poems, being carried
away in the joy of the sounds.

Thanks, Robert for this question.  It's like a clue, opening the key to
the whole world of Lieder and indeed modern song, and the role of Schubert.
Just the tip of the iceberg.

Anne
[log in to unmask]