Biography franz schubert symphony no 3
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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” mitt i 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 lärling in Vienna. While his lat
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performed, as always, by Neville Marriner and the ASMF, or below by Marriss Jansons and the Concertgebouw (apologies for the anime image, but it’s a nice performance)
Mini-German: Part 2
(I know he’s Austrian)
Now for a slight change of pace. Sort of. While this work came a decade after last week’s Beethoven piece, it is… at least to my ears, not as far ahead of its time. That’s no criticism at all. Let me explain.
For one, Eroica was just kind of a phenomenal thing. Beethoven was already into his thirties when this piece was written. Schubert was about half that age when he wrote his third (18 years old). That’s perhaps the greatest factor.
But first, let’s talk about the relationship between these two composers. For the real well-written (and original source) version, go check out this section of the Wikipedia article on Beethoven and his contemporaries.
Actually, before we talk about that, let’s talk about the climate in
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- Franz Schubert
- Born January 31, 1797, in Vienna, Austria
- Died November 19, 1828, in Vienna, Austria
- Instrumentation
- 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
- Performance time
- 22 minutes
- Premiered
- 1881, in London, England
- Last Performed by the TSO
- October 6, 2024
Schubert composed his third symphony in 1815 when he was 16 years old. Although still very much a youth, he was already beginning to develop his own voice. This development doesn’t often happen to artists so young; artists decades older than Schubert can still be finding it. Another remarkable fact: Schubert probably never heard most of his symphonies performed, but composing them moved him towards his goal of becoming a known composer with something to say. Fame did not really happen during his short life, he remained only a local composer, and the third symphony was not performed in public until 1881.
Modeling a work on an accepted masterpiece or some admired work is