Tuesday 18 September 2012

Schubert - Symphony 9 'The Great' [Abbado-The Chamber Orchestra Of Europe] 

And after yesterdays Schubert 8, we have the Ninth, and it's good to hear these two Symphonies side by side, especially in the second movement of the Eighth, you can hear the second movement of the Ninth, you can tell they're related, but we're out of dark B Minor, and into bright C Major, a very 'vanilla key' if you will, the gloriousness of the Symphony is bound up in its length, over an hour here [62 Minutes], and yet it never outstays its welcome, Schubert repeats and repeats, but i still don't want it to stop, i wonder what his Tenth would have sounded like?.

Claudio Abbado is Italian, he's now 79, and he looks old, he made this recording in 1987, the cover is not really inspired, it's actually a painting by Rudolph Distler entitled Sommer [Summer].

Right from the opening horn, we sink into the beautiful world of the Ninth Symphony, every time i listen to it, i think 'what an incredible composition it is', it's the second movement that really touched me today, .

Here's Claudio Abbado conducting the Ninth Symphony on YouTube, the second movement begins at 16:35.