It is my personal conviction that out of every composer I know, Schubert must surely be considered the most consistently brilliant.
Yes, there is something boyish about his music, but that makes it all the more sensitive. For this innocence makes the music more sincere, especially in moments of dramatic power.
Furthermore, this 'power' is particularly interesting, for it is both subtle (in his piano music) and more overt as in his eighth symphony. I am not sure Beethoven can be considered anywhere near as brilliant in this grasp of the subtleties of power. Schubert's music is so intelligent in its personal simplicity, without embodying the hardcore enlightentment concepts that Beethoven does. It is this quality that makes his music so timeless. It is about emotions, every day ones, about things in life we all experience, rather than more the meta-narrative ideas of Beethoven or Wagner.
For a young composer, and one so restrained from bombast, I also always admire his confidence to make such music without massive statements flowing through it, while avoiding the outright boredom of many of the supposed sincere composers we are supposed to enjoy (like bach!).
He gets me going every time.
Am I a madman?
