In his brief life of just 31 years, Franz Schubert (b 1797) created a treasury of music that remains at the core of Western classical music around the world, well past his death in 1828.

Schubert’s captivating melodies and inventive harmonic language tell vivid tales through dramatic song cycles and expansive symphonies, intimate chamber music and formidable instrumental pieces, sacred and theatrical works. He has remained a defining figure in the music of the 19th century, most notably in Art Song (Lieder).

Despite being plagued by uncertain finances and frightening ill-health, Schubert composed an inspired catalogue of more than 1000 works. Critical to his creativity and the dissemination of his music were the Schubertiades, private soirees held from 1815, in the homes of his close friends and supporters in Vienna, where his music was played and poetry was read.

One such evening is immortalised in a drawing by the Austrian painter Moritz von Schwindt, now held in Vienna’s Historisches Museum. Central to that gathering, Schubert sits at the piano, surrounded by his inner circle which included the artist.

Schubertiades continue around the Western world, and this year, the most renowned of them, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg Hohenems, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Established in 1976 by the esteemed German baritone Hermann Prey, it attracts as many as 35,000 visitors to the dozens of events which “present the works of Franz Schubert in an intimate setting in an exemplary way.”

The Markus Sittikus Hall in Hohenems. Photo supplied

Since 1983, the festival has broadened its scope to include works by other composers, primarily Schubert’s predecessors, contemporaries and successors.

Hosting the festival are the two picturesque Austrian towns of Schwarzenberg, in Bregenz, near Lake Constance and Hohenems in the Austrian Rhine Valley. Celebrating this semi-centenary, the festival will reprise the very first Schubertiade program at the opening concert in the 300-seat Markus Sittikus Hall in Hohenems, also home to the Franz Schubert Museum and the Schubertiade Museum. The 600-seat, meadow-centred timber Angelika Kauffmann Hall is the venue for the Schwarzenberg events.

Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg. Photo © Dominic Kummer/Bregenzerwald Tourismus

This year’s Schubertiade offers 49 concerts from April to October, comprising 22 song recitals, eight piano recitals, 18 chamber concerts and one choral concert, spread over four sessions in Hohenems and two in Schwarzenberg.

Featured artists include tenor Julian Prégardien singing Die schöne Müllerin with Kristian Bezuidenhout at the keyboard, pianist Paul Lewis playing a program of Mozart and Schubert, the Pavel Haas Quartet playing Dvořák and other luminaries like Igor Levit, Marc-André Hamelin and Elisabeth Leonskaja. Past artistes include titans like Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Sviatoslav Richter and Alfred Brendel.

An enduring tribute to the man whom Liszt described as “the most poetic musician that ever lived.”

For more information on the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg Hohenems, visit this link.