Symphony No. 4 in C Minor

Written at regular intervals throughout his teenage years, Schubert’s initial six symphonies find him assessing the template derived from Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven. Its “Tragic” subtitle may have been added later, but his Fourth Symphony (1816) is the most dramatic of these works. The first movement begins with a sombre “Adagio”, its ominous aura carrying over into an “Allegro molto” of forceful and even combative energy. The “Andante” centres on an easeful melody for strings and woodwind, but an agitated interlude twice emerges to disrupt its eventual euphony. The “Menuetto” is notable for agile rhythmic syncopation and, in its trio, a blithe tune for flutes and oboes. The final “Allegro” duly sets off with a theme whose “perpetual motion” accompaniment increases the sense of anxiety, until a turn to C major at the start of the reprise. Schubert never heard the work, which only premiered in Leipzig on 19 November 1849.