Steyr

Franz Schubert and Steyr

Franz Schubert was born on 31 January 1797 in the suburb of Lichtental in Vienna. Here a view into Schubert's birthplace.

In 1817, Schubert met the renowned court opera singer Johann Michael Vogl (1768-1840) at the Schober house. In the following years, Vogl became his interpreter and paved the way for the song composer to become a public figure.

The summer of 1819 led Schubert to Steyr in Upper Austria, Vogl's birthplace. During one of the numerous song recitals he gave there with Vogl, Schubert made the acquaintance of Sylvester Paumgartner, a patron of the arts and amateur cellist, who ordered a piano quintet from Schubert - it would later become known as the "Trout Quintet".

Schubert set poems to music by his Steyr friend Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (* 3 November 1787 in Steyr, Upper Austria; † 5 February 1836 in Vienna). Mayrhofer prepared himself for a life as a clergyman for four years in the Augustinian Canon Monastery of St. Florian after his secondary school years, in accordance with the wishes of his parents. For lack of conviction, however, he broke off this path.

At the end of February 1823 Schubert mentions his syphilitic illness for the first time in a letter to a friend. During the summer he undertook a journey of several weeks with Vogl to Linz and Steyr. In autumn he composed the incidental music for Rosamunde. He now undertook the first attempts to have the illness treated and spent a long time in hospital. There he wrote the song cycle "Die schöne Müllerin".

In May 1825 he began his longest journey with Vogl. It lasted almost six months and took the friends all over Upper Austria and Salzburg.