Symphony No. 9 in C Major

Although he completed it in 1826, Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 was not publicly performed during the remaining two years of his life. At the time it was regarded as technically so difficult, and its 55-minute duration so long, that it was considered to be unplayable. This situation changed when Schumann visited Vienna in 1838 and Ferdinand Schubert, the composer’s surviving brother, showed him the symphony’s manuscript score. Deeply impressed, Schumann showed this in turn to Mendelssohn, who conducted the first public performance in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus auditorium in 1839. The symphony soon became known as the “Great C major” to differentiate it from Schubert’s earlier Symphony No. 6 in the same key, which was accordingly described as the “Little C major”. In time, however, the unofficial subtitle of Symphony No. 9 came to be regarded as a fitting tribute to the work’s epic dimensions and soaring range of invention. The first movement opens with a quiet unaccompanied introduction for two unison horns, instantly establishing a sense of great space and scale. The movement’s main “Allegro ma non troppo” section is followed first by an “Andante con moto” second movement in A minor, then by a tumultuous “Scherzo”. Finally comes the “Allegro vivace” finale, whose relentless momentum is sustained by insistently repeated string figuration. This is what once gave the symphony its “unplayable” reputation; even today’s performers find it unusually demanding.