Third Symphony Concert

The third symphony concert is wholly devoted to composers from the Viennese Classical period. The opening work is Beethoven’s overture to Carl Meisl’s play “The Consecration of the House”, commissioned for the 1822 inauguration of Vienna’s new Theater in der Josefstadt, where the composer received rapturous applause. Now living in Hannover, Israeli clarinettist Sharon Kam performs Carl Maria von Weber’s Second Clarinet Concerto (composed in 1811), for which she also received the ECHO Klassik “Instrumentalist of the Year” award for her recording of the work. Weber composed the piece at the insistence of his friend, the clarinettist Heinrich Joseph Bärmann. The main work of the evening is Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in C Major (“The Great”), composed in 1825/1826. Along with the preceding Symphony No. 7, it was a pioneer of the Romanticism and also influenced composers of the next generation, like Bruckner and Mahler. Unusually long for a symphony of its time, it is a piece of monumental scale and was regarded by Schubert himself as his best symphonic work. In a phrase destined to become famous, Robert Schumann once hailed the symphony for its “heavenly length”.