A man of genius, despite his ill health and many complexes, Franz Schubert was the very embodiment of Romanticism. His too-short life was marked by a ceaseless quest for beauty and the perpetual presence of death.

After suffering the ravages of syphilis for five long years, he died at the age of 31, having attained neither love nor glory, being too shy for the first, and lacking sufficient ambition for the latter. In his lifetime, he achieved modest success, essentially limited to a circle of friends. Yet, the passion he carried within him inspired him to compose some of the greatest chamber music of the classical repertoire.

Ill at ease in the world, Schubert seems to have lived on this earth for the sole purpose of composing, desperately seeking within music a means to escape the clutches of death.

In this film, we are introduced to the world of Franz Schubert through a series of documentary vignettes shot, for the most part, in Austria.

These vignettes are interspersed with musical movements drawn from two of the composer’s quartets (Death and the Maiden and Rosamunde) and two of his lieder (The Erl King and Serenade).

Performed on screen by Canadian musicians, these movements provide the score for a series of choreographed segments featuring costumed dancers and actors moving about in an imaginary setting.

Next to the DVD this package also contains two CD’s with the most famous and best loved works of Franz Schubert.

DVD NTSC
LANGUAGES: english - español - italiano - français
Format 4:3 all formats
Sound 5.1
all regions