# Recordings of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony



## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

2022 is the bicentennial year of the Unfinished Symphony's two completed movements. Even without a conclusion, this is a great work. There are three recordings that I've really liked: Herbert von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic, 1964 (DGG); Carlo Maria Giulini/Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1978 (DGG); and Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic, 1978 (DGG). What are the best recordings of this work that I haven't listened to yet?


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Try Pau Casals:


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

One recording I have a great fondness for is this Klemperer recording with the VPO and the end of the live performance Klemperer can be heard to say 'schone' (lovely).


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Monsalvat said:


> 2022 is the bicentennial year of the Unfinished Symphony's two completed movements. Even without a conclusion, this is a great work. There are three recordings that I've really liked: Herbert von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic, 1964 (DGG); Carlo Maria Giulini/Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1978 (DGG); and Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic, 1978 (DGG). What are the best recordings of this work that I haven't listened to yet?


This poor work gets beat up more than any other symphony, except possibly Beethoven 5, or Dvorak 9....

The Giulini/CSO is a good one, so is Casals/Marlboro, but my favorite is Toscanini/NBC....this one really cooks, there's nothing like it!! AT moves it along, with tremendous drive and tension...very "muscular" Schubert....


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Malx said:


> One recording I have a great fondness for is this Klemperer recording with the VPO and the end of the live performance Klemperer can be heard to say 'schone' (lovely).


I also really like Klemperer's commercial EMI recording with the Philharmonia.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

You might try Beecham with the RPO


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## bavlf (Oct 4, 2020)

Carl Schuricht - Wiener Philharmoniker - DECCA - 1956


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Too many take the Unfinished way too slow in the first movement....

It's "_Allegro moderato_", nor "_Largo Ponderoso soporifico_" :devil:


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

There is also another live Klemperer Unfinished with the Bavarian Radio S.O. It is in quite good stereo sound.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Becca said:


> There is also another live Klemperer Unfinished with the Bavarian Radio S.O. It is in quite good stereo sound.
> 
> View attachment 164431


I'd forgotten about this recording - it is very good, as is the Mendelssohn on the disc.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Just a 'heads up' about the Mendelssohn, it has Klemperer's rewrite of the last movement coda! He tried to include that with the studio recording but Walter Legge (the producer) wasn't having any of it!


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Becca said:


> Just a 'heads up' about the Mendelssohn, it has Klemperer's rewrite of the last movement coda! He tried to include that with the studio recording but Walter Legge (the producer) wasn't having any of it!


Hmmm?? The coda of the last mvt is wonderful, one of my favorite parts....what did OK chsnge??


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

^^ Here is a link to an article which, unfortunately, requires a login...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4149093


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Thanks! I'm able to access that article through an institution so I'm in luck!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Could you cut/paste the relevant section about the Scottish (or part thereof) for the rest of us?


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

A little while ago I did just that, and got a message saying that my post was pending moderator approval. I still don't see my post so I'll summarize; I suspect that the combination of my new account age and a significant amount of text in a post all of a sudden triggered some automated system. 

In essence, Klemperer wrote a new coda in 1968. In a concert on Jan. 22, 1969, he included in the program notes an explanatory message, claiming Mendelssohn had once expressed doubt about the ending, and that his ending does not mesh with the rest of the work -- it is in 6/8, is not based on Scottish material, and finishes fortissimo. Klemperer states that "I therefore believe that this gives me the right to alter this coda radically. But every single note in my version is by Mendelssohn. I simply continue with the beautiful second subject and thus arrive at an ending which is (for me personally) satisfying. I know I shall be much criticised for this alteration but I still believe that it is right."

The article points out that this is contradictory: it is "radically" altered, but "every single note" is by Mendelssohn. In the program notes for another concert, given on May 23, 1969, Klemperer stated:

"Has not, perhaps, the clever Gewandhaus kapellmeister Mendelssohn here overruled the great composer? I believe now that I have the right to make a fundamental change to the coda. In the ending that I have substituted, not a note is not by Mendelssohn. I simply lead the beautiful second theme to a close and thereby achieve an ending that is satisfying (to me
personally)."

The article points out the double negative here: even though not a not is not by Mendelssohn, this is not equivalent to "every note is by Mendelssohn." From this point the author departs a bit. He also mentions that Klemperer had performed the Scottish symphony with cuts in the coda much earlier, in 1947 and 1949. The authors actually include facsimiles of the Klemperer ending, six pages in full score, dated 15.9.1968, starting from measure 388.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

The "Unfinished" is a piece I had begun to avoid, not because I didn't/don't like it but because the bloom had begun to go off it for me. Kleiber's recording was the one which made it come alive for me again. Another one I enjoy is Walter (a great Schubertian - his "Great C major" is...well, great) with the Columbia Symphony Orch.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Monsalvat said:


> A little while ago I did just that, and got a message saying that my post was pending moderator approval. I still don't see my post so I'll summarize; I suspect that the combination of my new account age and a significant amount of text in a post all of a sudden triggered some automated system
> 
> . . . .


Might it have been copyright infringement? A short excerpt is OK - a longer one is not.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Yeah I think so. I'm content though, since it seems like summarizing and including a couple short quotes was satisfactory. If you register for a free JSTOR account, you can read up to six articles per month for free, and they have a message on their site stating that they've temporarily raised it to 100 articles per month. So you should be able to access the full text as long as you are comfortable giving JSTOR your email address. See https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004760028-How-to-Register-Get-Free-Access-to-Content


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## Wigmar (7 mo ago)

Monsalvat said:


> 2022 is the bicentennial year of the Unfinished Symphony's two completed movements. Even without a conclusion, this is a great work. There are three recordings that I've really liked: Herbert von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic, 1964 (DGG); Carlo Maria Giulini/Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1978 (DGG); and Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Philharmonic, 1978 (DGG). What are the best recordings of this work that I haven't listened to yet?


Klemperer / the Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI), recorded 1964, coupled with no 5.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Monsalvat said:


> 2022 is the bicentennial year of the Unfinished Symphony's two completed movements.


Maybe in 2028 we get a reprise of the famous 1928 "International Schubert Competition", which gave the world Atterberg's 6th and (more importantly) Schmidt's 3rd symphonies?
Or maybe better not, given the present poisonous cultural climate.

As for recordings, there's one I'm rather fond of, Sinopoli's coupling with Mendelssohn's Italian. Somehow I can stand Sinopoli's idiosyncrasies in Schubert more than in other composers.


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## GMB (10 mo ago)

I like Georg Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra, very powerful and stormy, driven and intense. The #9 which it is coupled with, is too fast for me, however. I have a soft spot for Szell with the Cleveland. Are there any other fans out there?


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

Here are my recommendations for recordings of Schubert's 8th (or 7th),

I. On modern instruments,

IMO, you should definitely try to hear the great Staatskapelle Dresden play the 8th, either in recordings by Wolfgang Sawallisch (from the 1960s), Herbert Blomstedt (from the 1970s), or Sir Colin Davis (from the digital era). Of the three, I prefer the Sawallisch & Blomstedt recordings myself (but like all three),

Sawallisch:





Blomstedt:





I've also liked Otmar Suitner's recording of the 8th with the Staatskapelle Berlin, on Denon,






Finally, Eugen Jochum is likewise very fine in the 8th, as well, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on DG. Interestingly, Jochum once told a friend of mine that his Schubert recordings were the ones that he was most proud of in his career (which makes sense, considering how fine Jochum was in Bruckner, a composer that was obsessed with Schubert),






II. I'd also suggest hearing the HIP treatment on modern instruments that the symphony gets from Nikolaus Harnoncourt, either with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, or the Berlin Philharmonic (I only know the former, but the Berlin recordings get excellent reviews, too).






III. Lastly, you should definitely try to hear some of the excellent period instrument recordings, & especially from Bruno Weil & The Classical Band, but also conductors Jos van Immerseel & Anima Eterna Brugge, and Frans Bruggen and The Orchestra of the 18th Century, as well. Interestingly, of the three conductors, only Immerseel took the pains to find and use authentic Viennese horns, which are very interesting to hear in Schubert, since they can make his symphonies sound more influenced by Beethoven than Haydn or Mozart, which of course puts them into a later context, where they belong.

Weil:
Schubert: symphony no. 7 ("Unfinished"), Bruno Weil, The Classical Band

Immerseel:
Sinfonie No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759 "Die Unvollendete": I. Allegro moderato

Bruggen:
Schubert - Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished'


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