Recording details: May 1990 Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom Produced by Mark Brown Engineered by Tony Faulkner The pages of the monumental Documentary Biography of Schubert by Otto Enc Deutsch yield little information for 1815. There are only nine items which relate to our composer in the year which is traditionally cited as an annus mirabilis (one of three in the history of song—the others are Schumann's 1840 and Wolfs 1888.) In the five pages devoted to 1815, there ts none of the lively conrespondence and writings from everyday life which we find in connection with Schubert's later years. We can only piece together traces of the young man's story, just enough to identify him as unsuccessful lover, blundering linguist, dutiful student, and aspiring opera composer, but not sufficient to give us a clear idea of his personality. The first document is a letter from Schubert which is now lost. We are told that in ...