In this riveting programme, the magnificent Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff explores the life of Franz Schubert (1797-1827), who wrote some of the world's most intensely poignant music for voice and for piano.

Though Schubert always lodged with friends or relations, he was a lonely, introspective man, who never had a lasting relationship with a woman. Beyond his close circle of friends, he received no public recognition and was constantly short of cash. And yet, as Schiff says, "This insignificant little person stormed the heavens."

Schiff visits many of the locations in Vienna associated with Schubert: his birthplace, the salons he played in, the surrounding countryside that he loved so much, the taverns he used to frequent and the cemetery where he was buried at the tragically young age of 31.

Interwoven with a description of Schubert's life is a personal exploration of his music and its relationship to his personality, played and discussed by Schiff in a variety of situations, including a typical contemporary Biedermeier salon and the concert hall at the headquarters of Bösendorfer. He also considers the importance of song in Schubert's piano music.

In a sequence with Peter Schreier, the great German tenor and a distinguished exponent of Schubert's lieder, he demonstrates how Schubert can create a drama in two minutes, his use of the piano to create colour and mood and to mirror nature, his ability to capture the terrors of the Final Judgement, and his genius in evoking movement. Finally, he looks at the variations in sound that different pianos produce, from a piano of Schubert's time to the modern concert grand.