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Schubert Symphony 8 & 9

5.4K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  peeyaj  
#1 ·
I don't listen to many symphonies as most of the time I listen to more casual chamber music.

Many people consider Schubert's 9 the best of his symphonies. So I started listening to the 9 and love it. It's beautiful. But today I listened to his 8 by accident, and it made the instant connection to me and caught me by surprise. It appears the 8 strikes me more than the 9.

What do your guys think?

BTW, I have no music background whatsoever. I just love listening to classical music.
 
#10 ·
When I was younger, I was thoroughly unimpressed by all of Schubert's non-piano/non-song output. They struck me as barren and with little harmonic complexity.

Thankfully, as I've matured, and come to understand the subtleties of music theory; and as I've developed a more refined taste [at least, I like to think so!] in music, I've come to appreciate the ingenious orchestration and, like KenOC called them, "unpretentious", nature of these excellent works!

All of Schubert's symphonies are excellent, plus both of his Overtures "in the Italian Style", and I'm especially fond of the even-tempered recordings of Harnoncourt.
 
#12 ·
Lostid, I can see the appeal of Dvorak's 8th. The first movement has a kind of transcendent joy about it, whereas the 9th has a far darker, more enraged pathos.

If you haven't heard it, I recommend also his "The Wild Dove", Op. 110. All of Dvorak's Symphonic Poems are interesting, though.
 
G
#15 ·
The wonderful thing about classical music is that you can have them all. I don't think I even want to compare the 8th to the 9th - I love them both. I rarely listen to only one of them. Typically I listen to both together. Schubert was incredible. He is one of my favorite composers. Definitely top 5.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I agree.

I guess sometimes after we have listened to a particular piece for many times over and again we will likely find freshness in other pieces we have not listened or have not listened enough.

What a loss to the human beings with Schubert died at such a young age, even though he had already composed so many beautiful pieces (literally anything he had composed) for us to enjoy. Although I started my journey of enjoying classical music from listening to Mozart's and Beethoven's (both remain my favorite composers no doubt about that), nowadays I listen more to the music of Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Ries, Raff and many others.
 
#17 ·
It took me a good long while to come to appreciate Schubert's non-piano music. I used to find his string quartets uninteresting, and his symphonies confused and without direction or melodic flow.

Thankfully, I've realized how much subtlety there is in these works, what ingenious orchestration, etc. Schubert's early symphonies are pleasant and charming, but not particularly impressive, in my opinion. Likewise with his first six string quartets. The string quintet and the piano quintet don't appeal much to me, for they don't seem to betoken a characteristic voice of Schubert.

The late symphonies are monumental accomplishments, and it amazes me how quickly Schubert developed a command of the contrapuntal art [notable mostly in the 8th]. The 9th symphony appeals to me chiefly for the excellence of orchestration, as well as some hauntingly beautiful melodies [thinking again of the touching trio section of the Scherzo].
 
#18 ·
Oh.. I love all of Schubert' symphonies. His early symphonies are magnificent especially my current favorite, Symphony no. 3. It's just darned charming!

His Unfinished is a monumental work. I have a slight preference to the Great C Major because I listen to it everyday. The recording of Josef Krips with LSO is the greatest ever!

:)