Unfinished

December 17, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Classical Music, MUSIC | 1 Comment |

Franz Schubert ‘s Symphony 8, the unfinished one, debuted 17 December 1865 in Vienna.  The composer was not able to hear it, having been decomposing since 1828.

Yet it is a marvellous piece of work, and all the more intriguing as we don’t know why Franz didn’t get around to finishing, apart from a hatred of paperwork, a love of booze and a touch of syphilis.

This because he was actually a real grind, with an astonishing output considering his short life.  Our review of a recent work is here covering Die Winterreise.

When he sat down to sketch out the symphony, Schubert was in a sad, B-Minor mood, possibly due to being confined to quarters for the disease.

Here’s Herbert von Karajan’s version:




1 Comment

  1. Reply

    Michael Reid Perry

    January 22, 2017

    I love Schubert! The lesson here is NEVER THINK ABOUT COMPOSING MORE THAN THE LIMIT OF EIGHT SYMPHONIES.


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