This weekend, the Oregon Symphony is performing Schubert’s Ninth Symphony in C major, often known as the “Great”. Schubert often gets a bit lost in comparison to the great First Viennese School of composers: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It’s a bit easy to understand, given that only two of his symphonies are performed with any regularity in the US – the ‘Unfinished’ and the ‘Great’, in C major. His masses rarely are performed, he wrote three operas which never really entered the repertoire. His greatest works mostly lie in the genres of chamber music, music for solo piano, and art song, which don’t reach the largest number of concert goers like the symphonic repertoire does. But, for having only reached the age of 32 at the time of his death, Schubert wrote an incredible amount of music of breathtaking beauty and genius. Take the last three years of his life, 1826 – 1828. In that time he wrote the following masterworks (along with dozens of other works in virtually every genre):
- Quartet in G major, D. 887 1826
- Quintet in C major, D. 956 1828
- Piano Trio in E-flat major, D. 929 1827
- Winterreise, D. 911 1827
- Schwanengesang, D. 957 1828
- Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D. 965 1828
- Piano Sonatas in C minor, A major, B-flat major (1828)
It’s just astounding, the quantity of incredible music that Schubert was writing right up until the end of his life. Here’s the great G major Quartet of 1826 that we’re working on with the Arnica Quartet right now, played by the Belcea Quartet: