Symphony No. 3 in D Major

Schubert produced his first six symphonies almost annually between the ages of 16 and 21. In them we hear the young composer’s confidence growing and his individual voice emerging as he casts off the influences of the music he heard around him—principally that of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The Third Symphony was composed in the space of two months during the summer of 1815, a year in which the astonishingly prolific young composer also completed the Second Symphony and produced two masses, four operettas, around 150 songs and a range of instrumental works. Haydn is the guiding spirit of the grandly expectant slow introduction, but Schubert is his own man in the light-hearted melodies—for clarinet and oboe in turn—of the first movement proper. The intermezzo-like “Allegretto” is followed by a “Menuetto” of Beethovenian propulsion which frames a liltingly Viennese trio. The nimble triplets of the finale bring this tirelessly genial symphony to its spirited conclusion.