Essentials: Schubert’s ‘Great Symphony’

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.

The young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev leads Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, known as the ‘Great’ – and for good reason. In the hugely productive final months of his short life, Schubert’s boundless creative ambition resulted in a truly superlative symphony.

When Robert Schumann discovered the work in a drawer at Schubert’s brother’s house after the composer’s death, he exulted at its ‘heavenly length’. Indeed, it is a grand architectural marvel which builds on Beethoven, quoting his Ninth Symphony, yet also seems to prefigure Bruckner.