Schubert - Symphony 8 'Unfinished' [Maazel-Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra]
This is a live performance, recorded in 1980 during a concert tour of Japan, the audience are quiet, but surprisingly muted at the end with their applause, their much more robust with the Beethoven performance, i don't get to hear this Symphony as much as i would like, the last time i listened to it was November last year, yes six months!, it's a long time for something so beautiful, i raved about this performance roughly two years ago [7th April 2010].
Lorin Maazel is American, though born in France, he's now 82, like i said, this was recorded in 1980.
Both of these movements are so beautiful, the second is more serene and sweet, the first is dark and troublesome, i just love the overall structure and sweep of the movement, it lasts nearly 16 minutes here, Schubert uses a chugging string rhythm at the beginning, in which clarinet and oboe play the main desolate melody over [0:20-1:14], in contrast the cellos play a more brighter serenade [1:26-1:44], of which the violins take up [1:44-2:02], but the dark underpinnings are never far away, of course you can hear the Ninth Symphony throughout, i love the way Schubert returns to the start again [3:52+], repetition really hits home here, halfway through there's a shimmering variation on the violins [7:35-9:00], that intensify into great fortes, and then comes very dark anger [9:08+], that erupts into furious string bowing, while the dark brass bray deep anger, and then of course like the end of a middle trio section, the opening returns a third wondrous time [10:38+], i notice the deep pizzicato on the strings [double basses i think], the ending is full of sadness [14:30+] and regret, and again the cries of a plangent oboe [15:07-15:16], and yet it's so beautiful too.
Here's Lorin Maazel conducting the first movement on YouTube.
