Schubert, 8th Symphony, "Unfinished"

Little Franz, experiencing a creative block

Franz Schubert's Symphony in B minor is traditionally assigned the number 8 when it is actually number 7. And it is called the Unfinished Symphony because it has two movements, although there is nothing to suggest that Schubert had in mind to add a third one, to complete it. It was never premiered during the composer's lifetime and audiences only learned of it almost forty years after the death of little Franz. These considerations are part of the mystery surrounding the creation of this symphony, considered by scholars to be the first great romantic symphony.

The years 1818 to 1822-23 were critical for Franz, creatively, as well as intimately. In February 1818 he completed the Sixth Symphony and in 1822 he embarked on the Wanderer Fantasy. In those four years, little Franz, who was characterized by a certain tendency to procrastinate, began and abandoned a dozen major works, including, of course, the symphony now called "unfinished," begun in the fall of 1822 and abandoned in early November.

The little maestro began writing the symphony without a commission, without an immediate diffusion program and never mentioned it in his correspondence. Having written the first two movements, he sketched a trio and a scherzo on the back of the last page. And that was all. He never took up the work again. And clearly, he had only six years to live.

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

The Challenge
The reasons for the abandonment have been widely discussed. On the one hand, a great disappointment of the composer is adduced, not being able to advance the sketches of the scherzo in a way that was on par with the two magnificent previous movements, already orchestrated. This was a Beethovenian challenge, the construction of a grand finale. It should not be forgotten that by those years the Bonn master had already written almost all of his symphonies, an achievement Schubert could not fail to notice.

The syphilis
At the end of 1822, on the other hand, little Franz contracted syphilis, an unglamorous disease accompanied by physical and emotional trauma. The disease completely incapacitated him, and that is when he gave up the task. By the spring of the following year, he had regained some of his strength. He was accepted as an honorary member of a musical society and sent the first two movements as a sign of recognition. The work was put away on a desk and soon forgotten. It languished there until 1860 when it was "rediscovered". It was finally premiered on December 18, 1865, in Vienna.

The AI contribution
In our time, having already started the 21st century, the newspapers inform us that a computer would have finished the unfinished symphony of the master Schubert. We will certainly have to see it, and hear it.

Symphony in B minor, No 8 - Movements
Surprisingly, its only two movements alone are enough to give the symphony the status of a masterpiece and make us forget the existence of any other fragment.

00:00  Allegro moderato - Its clearly romantic character made a famous musicologist say: "After a few bars of introduction, the clarinet and oboe begin in unison a sweet song over the soft murmur of the violins. A low exclamation runs through the hall: Schubert!"
18:06  Andante con moto - Here, the tempo and dynamic contrasts are more pronounced. Less violent and dramatic than the first, this movement is not yet without intimately tragic traits, which made another scholar, somewhat overdrawn perhaps, proclaim it "a premonition of the grave."

The performance is by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of German conductor Christoph Eschenbach.