Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

A Winter's Ramble with Schubert

By Chris Lydgate '90 on February 18, 2011 12:49 PM

582_Schubert_Klimt.jpgI had to chuckle at the brouhaha stirred by New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini recently with his ambitious attempt to rank the Top Ten Classical Composers Ever. (In case you haven't heard, JS Bach was #1.)

Lists of this sort are an old journalistic standby--subjective, outrageous, infuriating, and a marvelous device to spark debate and spur readership.

You have to love the guy, who died at 31, ill, impoverished and neglected except by a circle of friends who were in awe of his genius. For his hundreds of songs alone -- including the haunting cycle "Winterreise," which will never release its tenacious hold on singers and audiences -- Schubert is central to our concert life... Schubert's first few symphonies may be works in progress. But the "Unfinished" and especially the Ninth Symphony are astonishing. The Ninth paves the way for Bruckner and prefigures Mahler.

Tags: music, Portland, student life