Symphony No. 8 in B Minor

The two completed movements of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 date from 1822. By the end of that year, Schubert had also drafted out most of a scherzo third movement, and had orchestrated a small amount of this, but no music for a finale has ever been confirmed as existing. This sometimes also happened in other areas of Schubert’s enormous musical output. His Piano Sonata in C major (D. 840), known as “Reliquie”, has only two completed movements; and the Quartettsatz (D. 703) in C minor for string quartet consists of just one. The evidence indicates that if Schubert did not quickly sense how a partly composed multi-movement work could be completed, his instinct was to abandon it and start a new project instead. The two movements of Symphony No. 8 remained unperformed until 1865, when the music’s quality at once established the unfinished work as a major achievement in its own right. The insistently melancholic “Allegro moderato” first movement is a tragic vision, of a kind that looks ahead to the heart of the Romantic era to come; it also contains, in its major-key second theme, one of Schubert’s loveliest melodies. The E-major main theme of the “Andante con moto” second movement brings a serene lightening of mood, which is then offset by another long and beautifully poised theme, this time in a wistful C-sharp minor.