Symphonies Numéros 1, 3 et 4

Description

If Franz Schubert’s first symphonies are sometimes considered youthful works by a composer still very much in the process of learning, they nevertheless bear witness to a genius for symphonic construction that few musicians have displayed at the ages of 16 (Symphony No. 1), 18 (Symphony No. 3) and 19 (Symphony No. 4). Despite these promising beginnings, Schubert was published only sparingly during his lifetime — about a tenth of his output, and mostly lieder — and it would take sixty years after his death for his symphonic works to be printed. Philippe Herreweghe and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic here pay a superb tribute to these lesser-known and little-recorded pages by the composer, in a performance full of finesse, precision and sensitivity.