Unfinished

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: