(XIII) Schubert's character and the reception of his works.

In the decades following Schubert's premature death, his character – or at least the character that his friends and biographers constructed – was unavoidably linked to the reception of his music. Less than a week after Schubert's death, Josef von Zedlitz wrote in the Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst that ‘his private life was absolutely honourable and worthy, as is always the case with every true artist’. In the wake of Metternich's Europe, artists remained perhaps the one class that society could still idealize. Although less naive, the obituaries published by Sonnleithner, Spaun and Bauernfeld glossed over aspects of Schubert's life with which they must have been acquainted. Only Mayrhofer acknowledged in his notice that Schubert ‘had long been seriously ill, had gone through disheartening experiences, and life for him had shed its rosy colour’. Three decades later one might have thought that a balanced assessment was possible – although not where Anton Schindler was concerned. Waging a rearguard action, Schindler wrote in 1857 ‘does not the inheritance left by our young master declare clearly and distinctly how matters stood in his case with regard to his mode of life and consequently with regard to his use of every hour of his time? And yet the false idea has spread and taken firm root that Schubert led a disorderly life, was addicted to drink and suchlike’. Heinrich Kreissle, Schubert's first biographer, presented a composite picture of Schubert in 1861 (with a much expanded second edition in 1865) as ‘a good son, fondly attached to all his family, a firm friend, always ready to do a good turn for any he loved, free from all envy and hatred, high-minded …’. In 1873 the American Schubert biographer George Lowell Austin went one better than Kreissle: ‘The evenness of his disposition, which bore a resemblance to the smooth surface of a mirror, was rarely ruffled by exterior matters, and there existed a perfect harmony between his spirit and action …. The important elements of Schubert's character were a love of truth, and a marked hatred of jealousy, tenderness with firmness, sincerity and affection…’.

The centenary of Schubert's death in 1928 prompted a spate of books that continued to reinforce the Schubertbild. In the English-speaking world Newman Flower's Franz Schubert: the Man and his Circle boasted of its grounding in the scholarship of Otto Erich Deutsch. Flower did not look kindly on those who threatened to tarnish his portrait of Schubert: ‘[Anselm] Hüttenbrenner later declared that Schubert had “an overruling antipathy to the daughters of Eve”. But this is scarcely correct. That his love for Therese Grob was the great passion is beyond question’. More than a decade earlier Rudolf Bartsch's 1912 novel Schwammerl and Willner and Reichardt's 1916 Singspiel Das Dreimäderlhaus (English version, 1923, as Lilac Time) had spread the sentimentalized view of Schubert to every corner of the music world. With its brief span, remarkable productivity and lack of obvious turning-points, Schubert's biography facilitated just the kind of rewriting practised by biographers and novelists alike.

Between 1821 and Schubert's death in 1828 more than 100 opuses of his music had been published (or at least proofed by the composer), most by Viennese firms. This was a rate unequalled by any of Schubert's Viennese contemporaries. In terms of the sheer number of opuses, it almost doubles the total for Beethoven over the same period. The differences lay in the emphasis. In this period Beethoven saw seven symphonies and half a dozen overtures published; Schubert saw not one note of his orchestral music published. Schott published Beethoven's Missa solemnis shortly after its completion; Schubert could get only a handful of youthful sacred works into print. Almost two-thirds of Schubert's published opuses in his lifetime were devoted to lieder (more than 175 songs). The 50 Nachlass opuses published between 1830 and 1850 by Anton Diabelli were devoted entirely to 137 more lieder. More than 30 other Schubert opuses were divided equally between music for piano and piano duet. Of his greatest chamber works only the A minor Quartet and the E Piano Trio appeared in his lifetime. At the time of Beethoven's death, virtually all of the music on which his posthumous reputation would rest had been published. Less than a quarter of Schubert's music had appeared in print when he died, and publication was heavily skewed towards the least prestigious genres.

Facilitated by Schubert's brother Ferdinand, Robert Schumann's Viennese encounter with the ‘Great’ C major Symphony led to Mendelssohn's celebrated Leipzig performance on 21 March 1839 and a publication of the parts the next year. Schumann’s and Mendelssohn's roles were pivotal; previous attempts to mount performances in Vienna and Paris had failed because the musicians found the work too long and too difficult. But the publicity garnered by the symphony failed to have a major impact on the firms of Artaria, Diabelli, Leidesdorf, Schweiger and Spina, who continued to favour songs, partsongs and piano music. By 1865 only a single overture (d591) had been added to the orchestral list. Chamber music fared better, with the publication of the ‘Trout’ Quintet, the G major String Quartet, the Octet in F and the B Piano Trio. Yet almost four decades after his death still less than half of Schubert's music was in print. In 1865 Anselm and Josef Hüttenbrenner were finally persuaded to go public with the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony, their legacy from Schubert's honorary 1822 diploma the Styrian Music Society in Graz. The first public performance of the symphony under Johann Herbeck finally put Schubert on the international map, leading quickly to performances in Germany, England, France and North America.

Schubert, Franz