SCHUBERT, F.: Symphony No. 9, "Great" (Bohm)
Orchestra:
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Conductor:
Bohm, Karl
Composer:
Schubert, Franz
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, "Great"
Playing Time: 00:49:45
Television Director:
Colpi, Henri
Catalogue Number: A05003135
In the throes of his mortal illness, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) heroically succeeded in putting to paper his splendid last symphony, whose "divine lengths" are truly unique. Composed in 1825/26, Schubert's largest symphonic work lay nearly untouched for a decade after his death, finally catching the attention of Robert Schumann in 1838 and receiving its first performance one year later by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In marked contrast to the equally-beloved "Unfinished" Symphony, Schubert devises a labyrinth of harmonies in a piece full of artless directness and joyful dance-like rhythms. Echoes of the visionary secrets of Romanticism surface from the depths of the work, only to be washed away by the inexorable current of the melodies. Never did Schubert write with such a lavish and impetuous hand than in his Ninth Symphony: "...it bears the eternal seed of youth within it" (Robert Schumann).
Karl Böhm conducts the Wiener Symphoniker in this recording made in the mid 1960s.
