2-720-428 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'They found Schubert hard at work', (1907). In 1817, Franz Schober takes Johann Vogl, a famous opera singer in Vienna, to meet his friend the young composer Schubert: 'On reaching the lodgings...they had found Schubert hard at work as usual, and the floor as well as the table strewn with sheets of music-paper...Schubert was overwhelmed by confusion, and had nothing to say in his own behalf. Vogl thereupon took up several of the songs, humming them to himself as he went along, and Schober, watching him intently, saw his interest deepen, until at length, despite his great experience as a singer, he was evidently impressed by what he read. When he left he shook Schubert's hand warmly, and said: 'There is stuff in you, but you squander your fine thoughts instead of making the most of them.' An episode from the life of Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). From "Story-Lives of Great Musicians", by F.J. Rowbotham. [Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd, London, 1907]