# Questions about different concerts of Schubert's 8. Symphony (The Great)



## Gorge (Jan 8, 2015)

Hello,

I'm pretty much new to classical music and have only been to about 5 concerts. I hope you can help me understand things a little better. I like Symphonys, and one of my favorites is Schubert's Great, which i want to go see live soon. 

There are 2 concerts featuring the piece, one played by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and one by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. From what i found, the Gürzenich Orchestra has about 130 members and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra about 30-40.

So now my questions are: 
How is this piece affected by the different sizes of the orchestras?
Is this piece usually played with around 30 people and the Gürzenich Orchestra would just use this many too, or would it use way more people? If yes, for what instruments, only specific ones?
Also if yes, how does more people change the sound of it, is more always better?

Gorge


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Gorge said:


> So now my questions are:
> How is this piece affected by the different sizes of the orchestras?
> Is this piece usually played with around 30 people and the Gürzenich Orchestra would just use this many too, or would it use way more people? If yes, for what instruments, only specific ones?
> Also if yes, how does more people change the sound of it, is more always better?


The sheer sound of the piece will be quite different. More is not necessarily better. Larger orchestras provide a thicker, lusher, but "muddier" and less distinct sound; some people prefer one, some the other.

The main question is whether the smaller ensemble uses period instruments and/or techniques, which would result in a sound that's further away from the large modern orchestra. Beyond that, the level of playing will also make a big difference, and if I were making the decision, I would go with the ensemble and conductor I thought would give a better performance.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Go to Scottish Chamber Orchestra - they're amazing. They'll play it with fewer strings, but they won't lack volume. What you may miss is a very lush sound as opposed to the much tighter sound a very good smaller string section offers. I'd expect Scottish Chamber Orchestra to be the much better performance

One more thing - you won't get too many opportunities to hear a fine group like the SCO play this whereas there'll be plenty of other chances to hear a standard concert hall orchestra in Schubert 9 - promise me you'll go to the SCO, you lucky thing


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

If You have Spotify or something similar, why not try out either, I believe that there are recordings of this symphony by both these orchestras (Mackerras / Wand), might make it easier to for You make up Your mind?

/ptr


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