Since its composition nearly 200 years ago, the UNFINISHED SYMPHONY of FRANZ SCHUBERT has undergone numberless interpretations.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, for example, noted its ease, exquisiteness and refinement; Leonard Bernstein, on the contrary, emphasized its dramatism as main characteristic feature; Herbert von Karajan considered that the introduction was of greatest importance.

Like most of his works, the Eighth was not performed during Schubert’s lifetime. Schubert wrote the symphony in 1822-23, and contemplated writing a scherzo which was to follow the two movements and which survives in drafts. Despite the unconventional structure of the symphony, historians do not believe that it was unfinished – on the contrary, two facts justify their assertion: first, having completed the second part, Schubert immediately proceeded to other works – a thing, which, according to the testimony of his friends he was never inclined to do if he considered a previous work unfinished; and the second fact is that he made a gift of the score to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, who kept it in his possession even after his death.

Hüttenbrenner never conducted the work, perhaps protecting himself from eventual failure in view of the unusual structure of the symphony. Schubert, of course, tended to become engrossed in his new ideas, oblivious of the notes. The legends relate that the composer habitually forgot music he had already written down, and when his own pieces were shown to him, he would say: “What a wonderful thing! And who is the author?”

In 1865, Johann Herbeck, conductor of the Vienna Musikverein, looking for compositions suitable for performance, found this Schubert symphony. He became its first performer, substituting the closing movement of Schubert’s Third Symphony as a finale. The score was printed and released virtually at once, which marked the beginning of the symphony’s triumph around the world.

Despite the essential completeness of the symphony in virtue of the intrinsic integrity of its musical content, there were attempts to complete it, like those made by Schubert scholar Brian Newbould and Russian composer Anton Safronov.

Time, however, has vindicated the correctness of Schubert’s decisions, despite the attributed title “Unfinished”.

Edward Hansclick, a music critic and all but an informal legislator of the nineteenth century musical aesthetics, contributed in 1865 a review of the premiere for the Viennese press:

“When, after a few introductory bars, clarinet and oboe sound una voce a sweet melody on top of the quiet murmuring of the strings, any child knows the composer and a half-suppressed exclamation “Schubert!” runs hummingly through the hall.He has hardly entered, but it is as if you knew his steps, his very way of opening the door…“