Thefirst movement leads us through the charm of its principal melodic material toan excursion into stranger keys, until a recapitulation that opens with thefirst theme in the key of E fiat, before the original key of the movement isrestored. It isscored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, with strings, while the Unfinished Symphony was to make use of alarger orchestra that included clarinets, trombones, trumpets and drums. The music is in the tradition of what Schubert inhis diary that year described as the magic sound of Mozart, the immortal. The musicians concernedwere otherwise amateurs from the group that had been accustomed to meet at thehouse of Schubert's father. The fifth of Schubert's nine numbered symphonies was written in 1816and was performed in October, a month after its composition, at the house ofOtto Hatwig, a violinist in the Burgtheater orchestra. The venture,supported generously by members of Schubert's circle, was financiallysuccessful and in the same year publishers had started to show a more activeinterest in music, much of which was to have a strong appeal in a period thatsaw a considerable development in domestic music-making. The only public concert devoted tohis work was given in Vienna nine months before his death. His larger scale works were often to be played by amateurs,since he never had at his disposal a professional orchestra, nor, in general,had he or his friends the means to hire one. Much of w hat he had written had proved eminently suitable for intimatesocial gatherings. Schubert, by thetime of his death, seemed only to have started to make an impression on a widerpublic. The latter,who was to die one year before Schubert, had long been forced to relinquish hisearlier career as a virtuoso, but kept and was kept by a group of rich patrons,and, increasingly, by his manipulation of music-publishers. He never held any official position in the musical establishment,nor was he a virtuoso performer, as Mozart and Beethoven had been. During his brief life Schubert enjoyed the friendship of a circle ofyoung poets, artists and musicians, many of them dependent on other employmentfor a living.
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