In his larger forms, Schubert is a wanderer. He likes to move at the edge of the precipice, and does so with the assurance of a sleepwalker. To wander is the Romantic condition; one yields to it enraptured, or is driven and plagued by the terror of finding no escape. More often than not, happiness is but the surface of despair.
Alfred Brendel (2015). “Music, Sense and Nonsense: Collected Essays and Lectures”, p.167, Biteback Publishing