Carnegie Hall

Franz Schubert was a phenomenally prolific composer who, despite an early death at age 31, produced more than 1,500 works throughout his lifetime. Better known and loved for his lieder and chamber music than his symphonies, Schubert’s large-scale orchestral works tend to fall away from the prevailing narrative about him as a composer.

In Gramophone, Michael Quinn attributed this omission to the “confusion of history” amid the shift from the Classical to the Romantic symphonic era, the transitional period during which these works were written. As products of a culturally complex moment, they perhaps cannot be easily slotted within Schubert’s other contributions to music. Never performed publicly in his lifetime, the story of his symphonies continues to be written as they undergo new evaluations and renditions by orchestras today.

Symphony No. 1 (1813)

Schubert was only 16 years old when he wrote his first symphony, still a student in Vienna. While his later symphonies—in particular the famous “Great” Symphony—show an affinity with burgeoning Romantic expressions of the genre, the earlier ones such as Symphony No. 1 owe more to Classicists Mozart and Haydn, perhaps in a self-conscious attempt to avoid comparison with or overt influence from the more contemporary Beethoven. Deftly realized in spite of its derivative nature, it’s a remarkable achievement that from a less industrious composer might be dismissed as juvenilia.

Symphony No. 2 (1814–1815)

The Second Symphony shows growing ambition and technical chops in Schubert’s symphonic writing. Like his Symphony No. 1, it bears the influence of Haydn’s “London” symphonies, but increases in both complexity and originality with, for example, a tricky multi-key exposition in the first movement. It is not a popular or frequent selection for orchestras, perhaps because of its reputation for being particularly difficult to play and perceived as much longer than its perfectly normal 31-minute duration.

Symphony No. 3 (1815)

Schubert finished his Symphony No. 3 just after his 18th birthday. Despite working full-time as a schoolteacher, he composed more than 200 works in 1815 alone—one of his most intense periods of productivity. The Third Symphony shows greater restraint than the previous two: It is both more concise and more playable, and perhaps a bit more fun as well. The final movement, in a tarantella form, has been compared to the spritely momentum and drive of Rossini’s overtures to comic operas.

Symphony No. 4, “Tragic” (1816)

A year later, Schubert turned to a more serious character for his Fourth Symphony. While it’s indeed heavier than his earliest symphonies—and his only full-length symphony written in a minor key—listeners and critics tend to conclude that the emotional tenor of the work is not, in reality, dark or dramatic enough to merit the “Tragic” subtitle he appended to it. The edgier moments of the symphony are more Sturm und Drang than doom and gloom, with plentiful opportunities for the sun to shine through the clouds.

Symphony No. 5 (1816)

Many have noted the overt influence of Mozart on Schubert’s Fifth, a perception cemented by a diary entry written not long before its completion in which Schubert swoons, “O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!” A popular favorite, Symphony No. 5 is sometimes read as a unique adaptation of Mozartian style, a 19th-century symphony yet untouched by the shadow of Beethoven.

Symphony No. 6 (1817–1818)

In historical deference to the much more famous “Great” Symphony, the Sixth has come to be known as Schubert’s “Little C Major.” It was the first of Schubert’s symphonies to be performed in public, reaching Viennese audiences four weeks after his death. While accomplished and exuberant, Symphony No. 6 tends to fade into the background when compared to its immediate predecessor, the well-loved Fifth, and the “Great” Symphony (also in C major) that gave it its diminutive nickname.

Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished” (1822)

Schubert’s Eighth has come to be known as one of the great unfinished works in music history. Despite being his only unfinished symphony, along with the “Great,” it is one of his few symphonic works to be considered a real masterpiece with a truly “Schubertian” character.

Historians and musicologists have theorized about Schubert’s failure to complete this otherwise monumental work, and some have even attempted to write speculative versions of the missing movements, but most agree that its two parts in fact feel surprisingly complete. Conductor Sir Colin Davis has said of the work, “There wasn't any need for any more of that symphony; it has two numbers in compound time that complement one another completely.”

Symphony No. 9, “Great” (ca. 1825–1828)

It’s important to remember that Schubert’s final symphony was likely only final because of his untimely death. As Schubert scholar Brian Newbould has pointed out, the composer began penning his Ninth Symphony when he was 29 years old; at that age, Beethoven had only begun to start work on his First Symphony. That the “Great” is now a touchstone of the repertoire—largely thanks to Robert Schumann’s discovery of it after Schubert’s death—is testament to the composer’s remarkable output and growth in his young adulthood.

The symphony is “Great” in more ways than one: It’s known for both its grandeur and difficulty, and what Schumann called its “heavenly length.” (A full performance clocks in at almost an hour.) Like Schubert’s symphonic catalog as a whole, it has also undergone a certain amount of historical reinterpretation—in this case, literally: Early published manuscripts were plagued by errors and tempo discrepancies. Today, along with the Eighth, it’s considered the pinnacle of Schubert’s writing for orchestra.