The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Giordano Bellincampi
Giordano Bellincampi conducts the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Photo: ©Adrian Malloch
Schubert's Ninth Symphony's most obvious distinguishing feature is its size, or as Robert Schumann described when he rediscovered the work ten years after Schubert’s death, and brought it to the public’s attention, its "heavenly length".
With regard to length, Beethoven had set the precedent with his Ninth. Apparently, Schubert attended the premiere of that. There is certainly a quotation from that most famous contemporary symphony in the finale of Schubert’s work, possibly acknowledging his debt to his colleague, but also daring to compete with Beethoven’s reputation as a symphonist.
Schubert finished the symphony in 1825, and he presented it to the Austrian Philharmonic Society in October 1826. But the work was roundly rejected because of its unusual length and its technical difficulty. It wasn’t performed in his lifetime.
This symphony is sometimes called his Eighth and sometimes his Ninth. You may even run across an old recording that calls it his Seventh or stumble across mention of it as his Tenth. The simple answer for this confusing situation is that not a single one of Schubert’s symphonies was published during his lifetime — nor, apart from this work, until more than half a century after his death
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 22 July 2021
Engineer: Adrian Hollay; Producer: Tim Dodd
