As I was reading – and greatly enjoying, Antoine Compagnon’s A Summer with Montaigne, I remembering thinking jokingly: Yes, but as long as one spends the winter with Schubert. But the idea grew on my, because while summer is the perfect time for reading on the beach, the cold season calls out to music as a necessity, to answer our need for warmth, gentleness and spiritual elevation. Forty texts sprang to life during the longest nights of the year.Why Schubert? Because although he was the first of the Romantics, he didn’t abandon Classicism. Because he is the most mysterious of composers. Because his Winter Journey is both profound and accessible, heart-rending and comforting. Because his music feels pain, but keeps on smiling, and looks death in the face while making us love life. Beethovenian utopias didn’t prevent wars or totalitarian madness. Perhaps Schubert’s time has come. A time of clear-sightedness, introspection and impermanence, as well as one of infinite beauty and friendship, to gaze upon the world with affectionate curiosity, without letting go of each other’s hands.

In the same spirit as A Summer with Montaigne, Olivier Bellamy paints an endearing portrait of the most romantic of musicians.