Interesting fact - I’m now older than Franz Schubert was when he died, but each year I grow an increasing appreciation for and fascination with his music.
The economy with which he writes relatively simple music that has a richness and complexity of feeling which goes beyond the number of notes on the page.
I’d not make the claim that he’s the greatest composer of all time. But what I would say is that if every composer were given a challenge to write a piece with only 100 notes. He would say the most - with the least.
Liszt shows his economy (in his best pieces) in another way: by re-using and transforming the same musical material/motifs in a piece. In the Sonata for example.
The late music is some of the wonders of the repertoire (as much as Brew is sick of 960).
Schubert somehow get’s away the ‘heavenly’ length. In fact there are many thing he gets away with which are unexplainable. My teacher and I were trying to figure out what makes the Gb Impromptu so special and came up with nada…It’s not a great searching melody, the harmony is standard, yet somehow it’s special.
