Exactly why Schubert didn’t complete his
Unfinished Symphony
will always remain a mystery. What is even more of a mystery,
however, is why some musicologists bother trying to complete
it! The two-movement structure feels remarkably complete as it
stands, but that hasn’t stopped Brian Newbould from fleshing
out Schubert’s (minimal) sketches for a Scherzo. Furthermore,
Mario Venzago thought it would be a good idea to tinker with
the first Entr’acte from
Rosamunde and install it
as a finale. For me this just didn’t work at all. Attractive
as the
Rosamunde music is, Schubert did not conceive it
as a symphonic finale and here it just sounds like it has been
tacked on - which it has! As for the Scherzo, it sounds disjointed
and harmonically very unstable, though it’s impossible
to tell whether that’s down to Schubert or to Newbould.
No: I just didn’t buy this. As for the performance of the
first two movements, this was bitty and unsatisfying. Falletta
chooses a fast tempo for the first movement and there is no exposition
repeat, so it feels as if the scale of the music doesn’t
have enough time to unfold. To add to this there is a lot of
extraneous noise on the recording: audience noise (though the
notes don’t say anything about it being a live recording),
creaking chairs and even page turns. That’s really not
acceptable unless it’s a knockout recording of the work
itself, and in view of the competition this one really doesn’t
shape up, in spite of the more intense second movement. It’s
really only for those who want to try the completion.
Having said all that, I really liked the arrangement of
Death
and the Maiden. This work still exerts a perennial fascination,
having attracted a famous arrangement from Mahler. Arrangers
are still entranced by it today. Andy Stein’s edition is
very different from Mahler’s though: Mahler only expanded
the string forces to fit a chamber orchestra, but Stein includes
the full complement of winds, brass and timpani. It has an entirely
different sound-world to either the quartet or the Mahler arrangement,
much more beefy, muscular and, at times, sinister. Stein says
he was trying 'to create a late classical/early Romantic
symphony' out of the quartet and in this he broadly succeeds.
The snarling winds enrich the all-important strings. The timpani
are sparingly but effectively used, and the final cadence is
quite shattering.
At the Naxos price you can afford to experiment a bit, and the
performance of
Death and the Maiden is good enough to
justify the outlay. It’s a shame it wasn’t coupled
with something more worthwhile, however.
Simon Thompson
Buffalo Philharmonic
Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta 
