Franz Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Franz Schubert is not considered a heavyweight with regard to the development of symphonic music. In fact, during his own lifetime his symphonies were hardly ever performed. The crowning glory of his oeuvre – the Great C-major Symphony – even had to wait until 1839 to receive its première, over 10 years after the death of the composer. Robert Schumann, who was the one to dust off this symphony, said the following of Schubert on that occasion: “The imaginative artist, whose paintbrush was drenched as much in moonbeams as in sunbeams, and who following Beethoven’s nine muses might well have borne us a tenth”. Though this remark mirrors Schumann’s admiration for Schubert as a symphonic composer, it also places his oeuvre in Beethoven’s shadow; a rather uncomfortable position for many a composer.