‘Unfinished’ Symphony

Symphony in B minor by Franz Schubert, written in October/November 1822. It was planned as a four-movement work, though only the first two movements, and a sketch of the scherzo, survive. In the original Gesamtausgabe it is called no. 8, but is more often referred to simply as the ‘Unfinished’.

Some authorities believe that the finale was written, but used a year later as the basis of Schubert's B minor Entr'acte in Rosamunde. After the Styrian Music Society, through Josef and Anselm Hüttenbrenner, had awarded Schubert their Diploma of Honour in 1823, he promised to send in return ‘one of my symphonies at the earliest opportunity’. Later he handed to Josef the score of the two completed movements. Anselm Hüttenbrenner made an arrangement of the work for piano duet in 1853, but made no attempt to get it performed. Johann Herbeck, who gave the first performance in Vienna in December 1865, coaxed the score out of Anselm with a promise to perform one of the latter's own works.

Schubert was the first composer to associate a tragic tone and intense personal feeling with B minor in a substantial symphonic work; in this the ‘Unfinished’ looks forward to late Romantic works such as Tchaikovsky's ‘Pathetique’ Symphony and Dvořák's Cello Concerto.