Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
Riccardo Muti conductor
Franz Schubert
Ouverture in do maggiore “im italienischen Stile” op. 170, D. 591
Symphony in C major “Great” D. 944
If it weren’t for Robert Schumann, Schubert’s Symphony no. 9 would probably still be one of music’s hidden treasures. It was indeed Schumann who, in 1839, found the score among the composer’s brother’s papers, and gave it its posthumous première. Schubert had sent it to the Musikverein in Vienna, at the time the undisputed capital of European music, where Rossini’s opera had already arrived (see how Schubert’s Ouverture is directly influenced by the “Italian style”). Schubert had meant his ‘no. 9’ to be the first great public performance of his symphonic efforts, but the work was set aside as too difficult for the orchestra to perform. He died a few months later, aged just 31.
