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Background:

• Schubert started composing the Symphony in 1822 but left it with two movements. Speculations on the reasons Schubert abandoned it had been rife.
• In 1823, the Graz Music Society gave Schubert an honorary diploma. He felt obliged to dedicate a symphony to them in return, and sent his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a leading member of the Society, an orchestral score he had written in 1822 consisting of the two completed movements of the Unfinished plus at least the first two pages of the start of a scherzo. This much is known.
• The choice of B minor, a key associated by contemporaries with death, solemnity, and melancholy, the Symphony reflected an inward-looking, shadowy, and deeply poetic atmosphere.
• The symphony is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony (an attribution also given to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony which premiered seventeen years earlier), due to its emphasis on the lyrical impulse within the dramatic structure of Classical sonata form.
• The Unfinished Symphony has been called No. 7 (recently, for example, in the New Schubert Edition) instead of No. 8 as it usually is in the traditional English system

Recordings:

• The Symphonies.
  Symphony No. 8
  The Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
  Claudio Abbado.
  Deutsche Grammophon.
  Gramophone Awards (1989): Winner Orchestral.

• 8 Symphonies.
  Symphony No. 8.
  Berliner Philharmoniker.
  Karl Bohm.
  Deutsche Grammophon.

• Symphonies Nos. 8 Unfinished & 9 Great.
  Gewandhauorchester.
  Herbert Blomstedt.
  Deutsche Grammophon.
  BBC Music Magazine (2022): Orchestral Choice.
  Gramophone Magazine (2022): Editor’s Choice.
  Radio 3 Record Review (2022): record of the Week.
  Opus Klassik Awards (2023): Nominated Conductor of the Year.

• Symphonien 1 – 8.
  Symphpny No. 8.
  Berliner Philharmoniker.
  Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
  Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings.

• The Symphonies.
  Symphony No. 8.
  Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
  Nikolaus Harnoncourt
  ICA Classics.
  Gramophone Magazine (2021): Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month.
  Radio 3 Building a Library (2024): Recommended.

• Unfinished & Great Symphonies.
  B’rock Orchestra.
  Rene Jacobs.
  Pentatone.

• The 10 Symphonies.
  Symphony No. 8.
  Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
  Neville Marriner.
  Philips.
  Gramophone Magazine (2026): Best-Kept Secrets.

• Transfiguration: Symphonie No. 8 & No. 9.
  Le Concert des Nations.
  Jordi Savall.
  Alia Vox.
  Gramophone Magazine (2022): editor’s Choice.
  International Classical Music Awards (2023): Nominated Symphonic Music.

About Coram Deo

Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.