Franz Peter Schubert 1797-1828

Wikipedia entry

Son of a school master.
Musically educated, and a child prodigy.
Scholarship to school for his voice, singing on the choir of the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial Seminary)

Franz Peter Schubert; 31 January 1797 - 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer.
In a short lifespan of less than 32 years, Schubert was a prolific composer, writing some 600 Lieder, ten complete or nearly complete symphonies (including the most famous of the incomplete ones, the "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades immediately after his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms, among other lesser lights, discovered and championed his works through the remainder of the century. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the early Romantic era and, as such, is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.
Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and Salieri decided to start training him privately in music theory and even in composition.

Last years and masterworks
Despite his preoccupation with the stage, and later with his official duties, Schubert found time during these years for a significant amount of composition. He completed the Mass in A flat (D. 678) and, in 1822, embarked suddenly on a work which more decisively than almost any other in those years showed his maturing personal vision, the "Unfinished Symphony" in B minor. The reason he left it unfinished after two movements and sketches some way into a third remains an enigma, and it is also remarkable that he did not mention it to any of his friends even though, as Brian Newbould notes, he must have felt thrilled by what he was achieving. The event has been debated endlessly without resolution.
In the spring of 1824 he wrote the Octet in F (D. 803), "A Sketch for a Grand Symphony"; and in the summer went back to Zseliz.
In 1825, Schubert also wrote the Piano Sonata in A minor (Op. 42, D. 845), and began the "Great" C major Symphony (Symphony No. 9, D. 944), which was completed the following year.[50]
From 1826 to 1828, Schubert resided continuously in Vienna, except for a brief visit to Graz in 1827. The history of his life during these three years was comparatively uninteresting, and is little more than a record of his compositions. In 1826, he dedicated a symphony (D. 944, that later came to be known as the "Great") to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and received an honorarium in return.[51] In the spring of 1828, he gave, for the only time in his career, a public concert of his own works, which was very well received.
The Symphony No. 9 (D. 944) is dated 1828, but Schubert scholars believe that this symphony was largely written in 1825Ğ1826 (being referred to while he was on holiday at Gastein in 1825 Ğ that work, once considered lost, now is generally seen as an early stage of his C major symphony) and was revised for prospective performance in 1828. This huge, Beethovenian work was declared "unplayable" by a Viennese orchestra.[56] This was a fairly unusual practice for Schubert, for whom publication, let alone performance, was rarely contemplated for most of his larger-scale works during his lifetime. In the last weeks of his life, he began to sketch three movements for a new Symphony in D (D. 936A).

Schubert Symphony 8. Muti with Vienna Philharmonic

Schubert Symphony 9. Sawallisch with Vienna Philharmonic

Schubert Symphony 9. Carl Bohm with Vienna Philharmonic

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. Leonard Bernstein Orchestre Nationale de France
Part 2- 13:40
Part 3- 20:30
Part 4- 37:30
Part 5- 42:30

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. DRSymfoniOrkestret - Rafael FrŸhbeck de Burgos.
© Danmarks Radio
The symphony is in 5 movements:
The score calls for a total of over 90 instrumentalists, the most of any symphony written to that time.
Specificially: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets (one doubling E? clarinet), 4 bassoons 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas/ophicleides 2 pairs of timpani, cymbals, suspended cymbal, tenor drum, bass drum, bells (sounding C and G) 4 harps, Strings (Berlioz specified at least 15 1st violins, 15 2nd violins, 10 violas, 11 celli and 9 basses on the score) Source:Wikipedia)
The movements:
R�veries -- Passions (Daydreams -- Passions)
Un bal (A ball)
Sc�ne aux champs (Scene in the Country)
Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold)
Songe d'une nuit de sabbat (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath)