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The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on WRTI: Solzhenitsyn and Schubert, Sept. 18 at 5 PM

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

It’s into the vault this Sunday for a January 30th, 2006 concert recorded in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, and conducted by then Music Director and current Conductor Laureate Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Join us on Sunday, September 18th from 5 to 6 pm to hear the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia perform Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, known as "The Great C Major Symphony," to distinguish it from Schubert's Symphony No. 6  in the same key.

In the last two years of his life, Schubert produced one masterpiece after another, among them: the String Quartet in G Major, the Piano Sonatas in C minor and B-flat Major, the Fantasia in F minor, the String Quintet in C Major, his last lieder—including the great song cycle of 24 songs in the collection Winterreise, and Symphony No 9.  

Schubert completed or revised the symphony in March of 1828; he died in November of that year at the age of 31. It wasn’t performed until 11 years later—in 1839 in Leipzig— under Felix Mendelssohn’s direction.

Musicians who first tried out the symphony pronounced it unplayable, primarily because of its length. As you’ll hear on Sunday, the Chamber Orchestra had no such problem.

Dave Conant is you host every month for live, recorded concert performances of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on WRTI.