Part 4

The C major Symphony is without its like in the whole range of music and by one magical pen stroke Schubert made it even a greater thing than when he first conceived it. The autograph score shows that by the substitution of a D natural for a G in the theme of the first Allegro the composer transformed what was scarcely more than a rhythm into one of the great symphonic subjects of all time. But he was never to hear the work. It came to a rehearsal by the Friends of Music, was found too difficult and “overloaded” and on the composer’s own advice, dropped in favor of the Sixth—the “little” C major. And yet it was the one symphony of its time which could have endured the sunlight of Beethoven undiminished and unashamed.

Exactly a year after Beethoven’s death Schubert at last gave the concert of his own works that he meant “if God wills” to give some day. It was the urging of Bauernfeld and other friends which finally caused things to materialize. The idea was that if all went well Schubert might offer his private concert annually and the rascally publishers would at long last be singing a different tune. His friends rallied nobly to his aid. Vogl sang, Josefine Fröhlich’s pupils gave Luise Gosmar’s birthday serenade, there was chamber music and a male chorus. The Musikverein hall was packed, encores were innumerable, the applause would not end and, best of all, there was a clear profit of more than half a hundred dollars. The only fly in the ointment was that no critics came, though several foreign publications carried flattering accounts.

But the little wealth quickly ebbed away. Again there were futile bickerings with publishers. Schubert would have liked to go to Graz once more but Baden and excursions to nearby Grinzing and Sievering were as much as he could allow himself. Headaches and other symptoms of a year before troubled him alarmingly. His doctor advised him to leave the stuffy center of town for some place where he could have plenty of fresh country air. So in September he moved to a house in the Neue Wieden section, where his brother Ferdinand had taken rooms. The building was new, still damp and unhealthy. Aside from a pilgrimage to Haydn’s tomb at Eisenstadt and some annoyances with the publisher, Schott, both September and October were uneventful. Suddenly, while at dinner one day in the Lichtental neighborhood of his birth, he threw down his fork, shouted that the food tasted like poison and refused to eat further.

Probably nobody suspected a serious illness, let alone a fatal one. At that Schubert did not immediately take to bed. He dragged himself a few days later to hear a Requiem by his brother, shortly before which he had been fearfully agitated by a first hearing of Beethoven’s C sharp minor Quartet. Yet so little does his condition appear to have worried him that he went to the theorist Simon Sechter to arrange for instruction in counterpoint—his intimates and a study of Handel’s oratorios having supposedly persuaded him of his deficiencies in that branch of technic. Nothing came of the project. By November 12 he wrote Schober that “he is sick, has eaten nothing in eleven days and can do no more than crawl from his bed to a chair.” And he implores his friend to procure him reading matter, preferably Fenimore Cooper. The sickness made rapid inroads, though he continued to toy with the operatic scheme of the _Count of Gleichen_, and carefully corrected the proofs of his _Winterreise cycle_. Soon he became delirious and the doctors held a consultation. The diagnosis was “nerve fever,” or typhus, the same sickness which had carried off his mother. Pathetically he begged his brother not to leave him “in this corner under ground”; and when the anguished Ferdinand assured him he was in his own room he insisted: “No, that’s not true, Beethoven is not here!” A little later he turned his face to the wall and murmured, we are told, “Here, here is my end!” “The days of affliction,” wrote Father Schubert to Ferdinand, “lie heavy upon us”; and he presently made in the old list of births and deaths in the Schubert family the entry with the mortuary cross: “Franz Peter, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1828, at three o’clock in the afternoon, of nerve fever, buried Saturday, Nov. 22, 1828.”

It was Ferdinand who decided that his brother should, in death, be brought closer to Beethoven than ever he had been in life. And since “Beethoven was not there,” where Schubert would ordinarily have been buried, Ferdinand saw to it that Franz should rest as close to his divinity as an intervening grave or two permitted. They were destined in the process of time to lie closer still. For three score years later the two masters were exhumed and placed side by side in two of those “graves of glory” in Vienna’s great Central Cemetery.

“Music has buried here a rich treasure, but fairer hopes,” read the epitaph which Grillparzer set on the original tomb in the Währing cemetery. “Fairer hopes,” indeed! How could Grillparzer know what even the wisest musical heads of his day did not know? Eleven years after Schubert died “all Paris” was said to be astounded at the “posthumous diligence of a song writer who, while one might think his ashes repose in Vienna, is still making eternal new songs”! It took decades to reveal the incalculable richness of this “treasure” and even now the world is not finally aware of its fullness. Another deathless master, Robert Schumann, gave the world Schubert’s C major Symphony, redeeming it from Ferdinand’s heaped but silent hoard of unprinted, nay, unsuspected scores. “Who can do anything after Beethoven?” the half-starved Konvikt student had wistfully asked. Here was at least one triumphant answer, made by Schubert himself, at a distance of only eight months from his early tomb!

COMPLETE LIST OF RECORDINGS BY THE PHILHARMONIC-SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK

COLUMBIA RECORDS

LP—Also available on Long Playing Microgroove Recordings as well as on the conventional Columbia Masterworks.

_Under the Direction of Bruno Walter_

Barber—Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 Beethoven—Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra in C major (with J. Corigliano, L. Rose and W. Hendl)—LP Beethoven—Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major (“Emperor”) (with Rudolf Serkin, piano)—LP Beethoven—Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra (with Joseph Szigeti)—LP Beethoven—Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21—LP Beethoven—Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (“Eroica”)—LP Beethoven—Symphony No. 5 in C minor—LP Beethoven—Symphony No. 8 in F major—LP Beethoven—Symphony No. 9 in D minor (“Choral”) (with Elena Nikolaidi, contralto, and Raoul Jobin, tenor)—LP Brahms—Song of Destiny (with Westminster Choir)—LP Dvorak—Slavonic Dance No. 1 Dvorak—Symphony No. 4 in G Major—LP Mahler—Symphony No. 4 in G major (with Desi Halban, soprano)—LP Mahler—Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor Mendelssohn—Concerto in E minor (with Nathan Milstein, violin)—LP Mendelssohn—Scherzo (from Midsummer Night’s Dream) Mozart—Cosi fan Tutti—Overture Mozart—Symphony No. 41 in C major (“Jupiter”), K. 551—LP Schubert—Symphony No. 7 in C major—LP Schumann, R.—Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (“Rhenish”)—LP Smetana—The Moldau (“Vltava”)—LP Strauss, J.—Emperor Waltz

_Under the Direction of Leopold Stokowski_

Copland—Billy the Kid (2 parts) Griffes—“The White Peacock,” Op. 7, No. 1—LP 7″ Ippolitow—“In the Village” from Caucasian Sketches (W. Lincer and M. Nazzi, soloists) Khachaturian—“Masquerade Suite”—LP Messian—“L’Ascension”—LP Sibelius—“Maiden with the Roses”—LP Tschaikowsky—Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32—LP Tschaikowsky—Overture Fantasy—Romeo and Juliet—LP Vaughan-Williams—Greensleeves Vaughan-Williams—Symphony No. 6 in E minor—LP Wagner—Die Walküre—Wotan Farewell and Magic Fire Music (Act III—Scene 3) Wagner—Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Siegfried’s Funeral March—(“Die Götterdämmerung”)—LP

_Under the Direction of Efrem Kurtz_

Chopin—Les Sylphides—LP Glinka—Mazurka—“Life of the Czar”—LP 7″ Grieg—Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 16 (with Oscar Levant, piano)—LP Herold—Zampa—Overture Kabalevsky—“The Comedians,” Op. 26—LP Khachaturian—Gayne—Ballet Suite No. 1—LP Khachaturian—Gayne—Ballet Suite No. 2—LP Lecoq—Mme. Angot Suite—LP Prokofieff—March, Op. 99—LP Rimsky-Korsakov—The Flight of the Bumble Bee—LP 7″ Shostakovich—Polka No. 3, “The Age of Gold”—LP 7″ Shostakovich—Symphony No. 9—LP Shostakovich—Valse from “Les Monts D’Or”—LP Villa-Lobos—Uirapuru—LP Wieniawski—Concerto No. 2 in D minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 22 (with Isaac Stern, violin)—LP

_Under the Direction of Charles Münch_

D’Indy—Symphony on a French Mountain Air for Orchestra and Piano—LP Milhaud—Suite Française—LP Mozart—Concerto No. 21 for Piano and Orchestra in C major—LP Saint-Saens—Symphony in C minor, No. 3 for Orchestra, Organ and Piano, Op. 78—LP

_Under the Direction of Artur Rodzinski_

Bizet—Carmen—Entr’acte (Prelude to Act III) Bizet—Symphony in C major—LP Brahms—Symphony No. 1 in C minor—LP Brahms—Symphony No. 2 in D major—LP Copland—A Lincoln Portrait (with Kenneth Spencer, Narrator)—LP Enesco—Roumanian Rhapsody—A major, No. 1—LP Gershwin—An American in Paris—LP Gould—“Spirituals” for Orchestra—LP Ibert—“Escales” (Port of Call)—LP Liszt—Mephisto Waltz—LP Moussorgsky—Gopack (The Fair at Sorotchinski)—LP Moussorgsky-Ravel—Pictures at an Exhibition—LP Prokofieff—Symphony No. 5—LP Rachmaninoff—Concerto No. 2 in C minor for Piano and Orchestra (with Gygory Sandor, piano) Rachmaninoff—Symphony No. 2 in E minor Saint-Saens—Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in C minor (with Robert Casadesus)—LP Sibelius—Symphony No. 4 in A minor Tschaikowsky—Nutcracker Suite—LP Tschaikowsky—Suite “Mozartiana”—LP Tschaikowsky—Symphony No. 6 in B minor (“Pathétique”)—LP Wagner—Lohengrin—Bridal Chamber Scene (Act III—Scene 2)—(with Helen Traubel, soprano, and Kurt Baum, tenor)—LP Wagner—Lohengrin—Elsa’s Dream (Act I, Scene 2) (with Helen Traubel, soprano) Wagner—Siegfried Idyll—LP Wagner—Tristan und Isolde—Excerpts (with Helen Traubel, soprano) Wagner—Die Walküre-Act III (Complete) (with Helen Traubel, soprano and Herbert Janssen, baritone)—LP Wagner—Die Walküre—Duet (Act I, Scene 3) (with Helen Traubel, soprano and Emery Darcy, tenor)—LP Wolf-Ferrari—“Secret of Suzanne,” Overture

_Under the Direction of Igor Stravinsky_

Stravinsky—Firebird Suite—LP Stravinsky—Fireworks (Feu d’Artifice)—LP Stravinsky—Four Norwegian Moods Stravinsky—Le Sacre du Printemps (The Consecration of the Spring)—LP Stravinsky—Scènes de Ballet—LP Stravinsky—Suite from “Petrouchka”—LP Stravinsky—Symphony in Three Movements—LP

_Under the Direction of Sir Thomas Beecham_

Mendelssohn—Symphony No. 4, in A major (“Italian”) Sibelius—Melisande (from “Pelleas and Melisande”) Sibelius—Symphony No. 7 in C major—LP Tschaikowsky—Capriccio Italien

_Under the Direction of John Barbirolli_

Bach-Barbirolli—Sheep May Safely Graze (from the “Birthday Cantata”)—LP Berlioz—Roman Carnival Overture Brahms—Symphony No. 2, in D major Brahms—Academic Festival Overture—LP Bruch—Concerto No. 1, in G minor (with Nathan Milstein, violin)—LP Debussy—First Rhapsody for Clarinet (with Benny Goodman, clarinet) Debussy—Petite Suite: Ballet Mozart—Concerto in B-flat major (with Robert Casadesus, piano) Mozart—Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183 Ravel—La Valse Rimsky-Korsakov—Capriccio Espagnol Sibelius—Symphony No. 1, in E minor Sibelius—Symphony No. 2, in D major Smetana—The Bartered Bride—Overture Tschaikowsky—Theme and Variations (from Suite No. 3 in G)—LP

_Under the Direction of Andre Kostelanetz_

Gershwin—Concerto in F (with Oscar Levant)—LP

_Under the Direction of Dimitri Mitropoulos_

Khachaturian—Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (with Oscar Levant, piano)—LP

VICTOR RECORDS

_Under the Direction of Arturo Toscanini_

Beethoven—Symphony No. 7 in A major Brahms—Variations on a Theme by Haydn Dukas—The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Gluck—Orfeo ed Euridice—Dance of the Spirits Haydn—Symphony No. 4 in D major (The Clock) Mendelssohn—Midsummer Night’s Dream—Scherzo Mozart—Symphony in D major (K. 385) Rossini—Barber of Seville—Overture Rossini—Semiramide—Overture Rossini—Italians in Algiers—Overture Verdi—Traviata—Preludes to Acts I and II Wagner—Excerpts—Lohengrin—Die Götterdämmerung—Siegfried Idyll

_Under the Direction of John Barbirolli_

Debussy—Iberia (Images, Set 3, No. 2) Purcell—Suite for Strings with four Horns, two Flutes, English Horn Respighi—Fountains of Rome Respighi—Old Dances and Airs (Special recording for members of the Philharmonic-Symphony League of New York) Schubert—Symphony No. 4 in C minor (Tragic) Schumann—Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor (with Yehudi Menuhin, violin) Tschaikowsky—Francesca da Rimini—Fantasia

_Under the Direction of Willem Mengelberg_

J. C. Bach—Arr. Stein—Sinfonia in B-flat major J. S. Bach—Arr. Mahler—Air for G String (from Suite for Orchestra) Beethoven—Egmont Overture Handel—Alcina Suite Mendelssohn—War March of the Priests (from Athalia) Meyerbeer—Prophète—Coronation March Saint-Saens—Rouet d’Omphale (Omphale’s Spinning Wheel) Schelling—Victory Ball Wagner—Flying Dutchman—Overture Wagner—Siegfried—Forest Murmurs (Waldweben)

Transcriber’s Notes

--A few palpable typos were silently corrected.

--Illustrations were shifted to the nearest paragraph break.

--Copyright notice is from the printed exemplar. (U.S. copyright was not renewed: this ebook is in the public domain.)

End of Project Gutenberg's Schubert and His Work, by Herbert Francis Peyser