The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform Franz Schubert’s famous “Unfinished” Symphony as part of its fall 2005 concert. The performance will begin at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 2 in Graham Chapel.
Written in 1822, the “Unfinished” Symphony is the most mysterious and the most forward-looking of Schubert’s works.
Officially known as Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, it consists of only two movements rather than the standard four. The key, B minor, was a daring choice at the time and had not been used for symphonies by Beethoven or his predecessors.
Ironically, Schubert himself never heard this symphony performed. Indeed, his circle of friends seems to have been unaware of its composition until after Schubert’s untimely death in 1828 at the age of 31, suggesting that the composer regarded it as a private, inward expression.
The nickname “unfinished,” added by a publisher, is something of a misnomer. Third movement sketches do survive and Schubert actually completed a final movement, which he subsequently assigned to his music for the play Rosamunde.
In addition to “Unfinished,” the program will feature the English Dances of British composer Malcolm Arnold. Written in the 1950s, these lighthearted works capture the spirit of English folksong through a variety of popular musical idioms.
Also on the program is Claude Debussy’s orchestral masterpiece Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, which the composer began at the instigation of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé as part of a planned stage adaptation of Mallarmé’s poem of the same title.
Though this staging never actually took place, Debussy drew further inspiration from the Paris World Exposition of 1889, which included Javanese gamelan — a large ensemble of gongs, kettles, drums, cymbal-like instruments and flutes — and completed the piece in 1894.
The 65-member orchestra is conducted by Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences.
The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call 935-4841 or e-mail staylor@wustl.edu.