Franz Schubert

Born in Himmelpfortgrund (now Vienna's IXth district) in 1797, the composer was taught composition by Antonio Salieri. After attending the Vienna Teacher Training College, he worked as a school assistant for his father. In 1818 he became a music teacher for the family of Count Johann Esterházy and began to live as a freelance composer. In the genre of the piano-accompanied Lied, he created an oeuvre that is still unrivalled in terms of quantity and quality today. He also composed highly significant symphonies, chamber music works, piano works and mass settings, as well as several stage works. A number of Schubert's compositions remained unfinished. Much-acclaimed dance creations based on Schubert's music include Leonid Massine’s Labyrinth (1941), George Balanchine's The Wanderer (1943), Erich Walter's Der Tod und das Mädchen (1964) and John Neumeier's Wendung (1977), Roland Petit's Les amours de Franz (1981), William Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (1996), Martin Schläpfer's Forellenquintett (2010) and John Neumeier's and Christian Spuck's choreographies for the song cycle Winterreise (2001 and 2018). Franz Schubert died in 1828 in Wieden (now Vienna’s IVth district).