Schubert’s Unfinished/ Philharmonic Hall
I PROMISE that this column will in due course come to an end. And that is more than can be said for the two symphonies to be heard at the Phil on Saturday, when the Czech Tomas Netopil conducts.
It is romantic to think of the composer’s pen’s falling from his hand in his dying moments, leaving his masterpiece incomplete. But that is rarely the case. In fact Schubert either put his 8th symphony to one side carelessly as he did many pieces, or he realised he could not keep up the emotional level of the first two movements.
He made no attempt to get the piece performed in his life time, giving the manuscript to his brother. It waited 37 years after his death to be heard.
The other symphony on Saturday, Bruckner’s 9th, was certainly unfinished because of the composer’s passing. But it was his tardiness that was to blame. He finished his 8th symphony in 1887, starting immediately on No.9. But a withering opinion of No.8, so discouraged him that he gave up on his next symphony and it was six years before he finished the first movement.
