The Spirit of Schubert

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BBC Radio 3 tells you everything you need to know about Franz Schubert. These free downloads will cover every aspect of the life of one of the greatest ever composers.

BBC Radio 3


    • Apr 2, 2012 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 14m AVG DURATION
    • 37 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from The Spirit of Schubert

    Composer of the Week: Schubert Part 2 of 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2012 51:24


    Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Franz Schubert, as part of a season of programmes devoted to the Viennese composer

    Schubert's Vienna:18 Last Days

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2012 5:08


    Sean Rafferty is taken to the ‘Sterbewohnung', the house where Schubert spent his final days and where he composed some of his greatest works, and goes to the Zentralfriedhof where Schubert is buried.

    Schubert's Vienna: 17 Syphilis

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2012 5:12


    Sean Rafferty sees grisly evidence of Schubert's syphilitic condition with Dr Beatrix Patzak, director of the Federal Pathology and Anatomy Museum, and hears about the symptoms, progress and treatment of the disease.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 8

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2012 30:13


    In the eight and final episode of The Schubert Lab, Tom Service tries to answer the question: Is Schubert's final year an end or a begining?

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 8 The UnRomantic death of the mercurial Schubert

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2012 12:09


    Romance proved difficult for Schubert - he stood barely five feet tall, with a long oval face and a deeply cleft chin. In turning to the streets of 19th century Vienna, "a night in the arms of Venus lead to a lifetime on Mercury" Whilst uncertainty exists about the cause of Schubert's death from syphilis, what do his attempts at mercury remedies reveal about his final few years? The medical historian and author of Romanticism and the Sciences Andrew Cunningham, examines The UnRomantic death of the mercurial Schubert.

    Schubert's Vienna: 16 Lichtenthal Church

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2012 3:36


    Sean Rafferty is guided round the Lichtenthal Church, scene of Schubert's baptism and first public performance, by parishioner Hannah Martin.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 7

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2012 27:47


    In the seventh episode of The Schubert Lab, Tom Service tries to answer the question: Who is Schubert? Prove whether he was a composer up with the angels or bathed in slime.

    Schubert's Vienna: 15 Hofburg and school

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2012 5:39


    Sean Rafferty follows in Schubert's schoolboy footsteps as Nora Tunkel takes him to Mass sung by the Vienna Boys' Choir at the Hofburgkapelle, and reads Schubert's school report with Simon Posch, director of the Vienna House of Music.

    Composer of the Week Schubert 1 of 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2012 50:25


    Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Franz Schubert, as part of a season of programmes devoted to the Viennese composer

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 7 Schubert and Performance

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2012 12:08


    During the 19th century public performance became polite and professional. Audiences listened attentively in an environment free of gimmicks, and performance criticism blossomed. Night Waves' Matthew Sweet examines the legacy that controlling an audience would create, and how this new wave of respectability enabled writing, composing and performance to prosper.

    Schubert's Vienna: 14 Dancing

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2012 5:07


    Sean Rafferty is taken for a turn around the ballroom by period dance specialist Pia Brocza and hears how Schubert's Vienna was waltz-crazy.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 6

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2012 25:33


    Tom Service tries to answer today's question: Schubert; classical or romantic? Was he either, neither or both?

    Schubert's Vienna: 13 Theatres

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2012 5:08


    Sean Rafferty talks to Thomas Trabitsch, director of the Austrian Theatre Museum and discovers the importance of theatre in Schubert's Vienna.

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 6 Schubert and Snow

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2012 12:26


    Night Waves' Philip Dodd reflects on the paradoxes on snow in music and literature and life, with Schubert as the point of departure and return.

    Schubert's Vienna: 12 Biedermeier

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2012 3:02


    Sean Rafferty delves below the elegant surface of Biedermeier Vienna to find what lurks there with the University of Vienna's Karl Vocelka.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 5

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2012 31:34


    Tom Service presents the fifth episiode of The Schubert Lab and investigates what Schubert was looking for and what he found in his 'wanderings'.

    Schubert's Vienna: 11 Schubert's Clothes

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2012 2:36


    Sean Rafferty rifles through the contents of Schubert's wardrobe with Regina Karner of the Vienna Museum Fashion Collection.

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 5 Schubert and Scotland

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2012 11:49


    Jenny Uglow concentrates on Schubert and Scotland exploring his settings of Ossian poems, and Scott's The Lady of the Lake.

    Schubert's Vienna: 10 Wallersee and Salzburg

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2012 4:14


    Sean Rafferty travels to Upper-Austria and Salzburg to follow in the footsteps of one of Schubert's holidays.

    Schubert's Vienna: 9 Prater and Zoo

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2012 5:52


    Sean Rafferty meets Prater Collection curator Ursula Storch, zoo historian Gerhard Heindl and Regina Karner of the Vienna Museum Fashion Collection to hear some of the surprising things that made for a good day out in Schubert's Vienna.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 4

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2012 25:01


    Tom Service introduces the fourth episode of The Schubert Lab and tries to answer the day's question; Schubert makes the piano represent the outdoors as well as any painting of the period. How does he do it?

    Schubert Labs - Episode 3

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2012 27:11


    Tom Service tries to answer today's question: What was the magic of Vienna and how did it shape Schubert's music?

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 4 When Schubert Met Beethoven

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 12:20


    The novelist Clare Morrall imagines what may have happened during one of Schubert's meetings with his great hero, Beethoven

    Schubert's Vienna: 8 Newspapers

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 4:43


    Sean Rafferty drops in at the offices of the Wiener Zeitung, Vienna's oldest newspaper, and talks to its editor Reinhard Göweil and journalist Richard Solder to see what was in the news in Schubert's Vienna.

    Schubert's Vienna: 7 Housing

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 6:08


    Sean Rafferty hears about the layout of Schubert's Vienna from Sándor Békési of the Vienna Museum and Caroline Jaeger-Klein from the Vienna University of Technology and is guided round the house where Schubert was born by Peter Stuiber

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 3

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 11:10


    Schubert's voice emerges uniquely from song which emanates from poetry. Robert Vilain, a specialist in the German poetic tradition, examines Schubert's poetic sources from Goethe to Wilhelm Muller

    Schubert Labs - Episode 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 31:09


    Tom Service presents the second episode of The Schubert Lab, where he aims to find out what Schubert got up to with his mates.

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 11:09


    Attempts to explain both Schubert's achievements and mood swings through theory, often fall short of explanation. The writer, philosopher and retired medical doctor Raymond Tallis re examines the neurological and psychological evidence of a composer who increasingly meditated on the darker side of the human psyche and human relationships

    The Schubert Essay - Episode 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2012 10:13


    The journey Sir George Grove made to Vienna by train was one of vision and passion. He went in pursuit of the lost works of a neglected composer, Franz Schubert, and his pilgrimage resulted in the discovery of the score of Rosamunde. Travel writer Simon Calder explores the journey of anticipation and what drove the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians to seek out the work of a relatively unpopular composer.

    Claiming Schubert

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2012 42:55


    As part of Radio 3's Spirit of Schubert season, Sir John Tusa explores the many and varied ways in which the composer has been used and reinvented after his death, in politics, art and literature. Who has claimed Schubert - and why? And what are the different things that he has come to represent since his death in 1837?

    Schubert's Vienna: 6 Coffee

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2012 4:21


    Sean Rafferty visits fifth generation coffee roaster Thomas Meinl at Julius Meinl to find out what was in Schubert's cup.

    Schubert's Vienna: 5 Coffee Houses and Smoking

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2012 6:37


    Sean Rafferty visits Maximillan Platzer, proprietor of Café Wiemer and Eva Abi-Fadel who owns the oldest pipe shop in Europe to find out about coffee-houses and smoking in Schubert's Vienna.

    Schubert Labs - Episode 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2012 22:10


    Tom Service presents the first episode of The Schubert Lab, where he aims to get to the bottom of the man and his music.

    Schubert's Vienna: 4 Secret Police

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2012 4:16


    Researcher Karin Schneider and Karl Vocelka, Head of History at Vienna University tell Sean Rafferty about the pervasive grip of the Secret Police in Schubert's Vienna.

    Schubert's Vienna: 3 Congress of Vienna

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2012 4:33


    Sean Rafferty learns about the Congress of Vienna from Karl Vocelka, Head of History at Vienna University.

    Schubert's Vienna: 2 Drink

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2012 4:56


    Sean Rafferty finds out about drinking, Schubert-style, from restaurant manager Udo Kaubek and wine grower and heuriger owner, Rainer Christ.

    Schubert's Vienna: 1 Food

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2012 2:36


    Sean Rafferty asks Udo Kaubek, Manager of Julius Meinl am Graben restaurant, about the sorts of things Schubert might have eaten.

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