Sunday Classics preview: Now we hear a first and a second movement from the same Schubert symphony

"Music expresses what cannot be put into words yet is impossible to leave unsaid."

-- conductor Günter Wand (1912-2002)

by Ken

Among the six symphonies Schubert wrote before the Unfinished, I think there's general agreement that the standout is No. 5, and since we're focusing at the moment on first and second movements of Schubert symphonies (last night we heard the first movement of No. 2 and the second movement of No. 6), in anticipation of contemplating the two amazing movements Schubert composed of the symphony we know as No. 8 (though it's really his seventh symphony), what could be more logical for tonight than to listen to the first two movements of Schubert's Symphony No. 5.

The performance we're hearing is from the last set of concerts conducted by that fine old-Germanic-tradition conductor Günter Wand, who after decades of honest toil at his craft somehow blossomed into celebrityhood in his final decades. I'll bet it surprised him more than anyone.

Maestro Wand wasn't much more than two months removed from his 90th birthday at the time of these concerts, in Hamburg at the end of October 2001, with the North German Radio (NDR) Symphony Orchestra, with which he had been closely associated for a couple of decades. The maestro made it to that 90th birthday, but not much beyond. He died on Feb. 14, 2002.

When I first heard this performance of the Schubert Fifth, which apparently followed the mighty Bruckner Fourth Symphony (Wand had become much heralded as a Bruckner conductor) on that final program, I was blown away. Wand was known, not for blazing musical inspirations or revelation of heretofore unknown musical depths. He was known for balance, poise and deep musicianship -- a sure inner sense of the way a piece of music moves. And this Schubert Fifth seems to me simply to bubble effortlessly with life.

One curiosity of the Schubert Fifth is the very opening. As we've had occasion to note, already Haydn and Mozart loved to sometimes preface their traditionally quick symphonic first movements with a slow introduction, and Beethoven loved to do it to, sometimes, Schubert did it with all eight of his symphonies, taking the slow introduction to quite sublime heights in the two final symphonic masterpieces, the Unfinished (though I admit we'll have to talk about what I'm calling the "slow introduction" to the Unfinished, which arguably isn't either slow or an introduction) and the "Great C major" Symphony (so called to distinguish it from the "Little C major," No. 6 -- the German word gross means both "big" and "great"). The Schubert Fifth does have an introduction, but it's a mere wisp, albeit an exhilarating wisp, of how-de-do.

Speaking of symphonic multiples, Schubert's Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 are in B-flat major. I just mention it.

SCHUBERT: from Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, D. 485

i. Allegro

ii. Andante con moto

North German Radio (NDR) Symphony Orchestra, Günter Wand, cond. BMG, recorded live, Oct. 28-30, 2001


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

Now that we've laid our groundwork for Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, tomorrow's the day. Plus we'll do some filling in on some other Schubert symphonies we have touched or will touch on.


SUNDAY CLASSICS POSTS

The current list is here.

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