Programme note
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony No 5 in B-flat major, D485 (1816)
Allegro
Andante con moto
Menuetto: Allegro molto
Allegro vivace
Schubert’s Fifth is not like Beethoven’s Fifth. Though written in the same city, it takes the progress of the Viennese symphony backwards rather than forwards, but does it so entrancingly that nobody should care. Schubert was, after all, only nineteen when he composed it, and the players at his disposal were members of what has been called a “neighbourhood” orchestra, with Schubert himself playing viola.
Not until his Unfinished, in 1822, did Schubert produce a genuinely vanguard symphony. Yet to suggest that the Unfinished displayed a wholly new side of his personality would be misleading. The signs were already there, in the volatile energy of the second and third symphonies and in the implications of the 'Tragic' (No 4 in C minor). In No 5, he poured some of his airiest melodies into a limpidly classical mould, half Haydn and half Mozart, yet made it sound utterly Schubertian.
Sir Donald Tovey, Edinburgh’s famous essayist, called it “a pearl of great price”, adding that no academic criticism had yet been produced that could pick holes in this “little” symphony. But was Tovey’s use of the word “little” not in itself a criticism? And perhaps somewhat patronising? Symphony orchestras take pains to preserve the special lightness of the music, luminously scored for one flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings – which once won it the nickname (a further gibe?) of the “Symphony without trumpets and drums.”
It is, in fact, a chamber symphony, as the finely balanced string and wind textures suggest. The first movement and finale are short, but have a vitality behind their grace which makes up for their brevity. The slow movement, especially if its repeated sections are included, is certainly not brief, but it is very beautiful. Though the main theme, according to Tovey, is “Schubertised Mozart” (yet another criticism?) it goes through modulations that are deeply Schubertian.
The third movement – more of a scherzo than a minuet – opens starkly in G minor before proceeding to a lilting waltzlike trio section in the major. It may recall Mozart’s 40th symphony, one of Schubert’s favourite works, but the fingerprints are again Schubert’s own.
© Conrad Wilson
