Symphony No. 5

Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert was 19 years old when he wrote his Fifth Symphony in autumn 1816. By that time, Schubert was already a young man of astonishing output. He had composed hundreds of songs, several earlier symphonies, chamber works, and piano pieces—most of them only known to his immediate circle of family and friends. He worked quickly, almost compulsively, as though he feared that time was running out. He completed the Fifth Symphony in just a few weeks, and yet it bears no trace of that haste. Every bar feels natural, joyful, and completely at ease.

Schubert did not write the symphony for a concert hall, but for a small domestic orchestra that met regularly in private homes around Vienna. It had grown out of informal string quartet evenings at Schubert’s family home and by 1816 had expanded into a modest amateur ensemble of some 30 players. The musical group was led by violinist Otto Hatwig, who hosted the gatherings in his own home. These musical evenings were called a “Schubertiade,” even during Schubert’s lifetime. Today, the Schubertiade Vorarlberg is a major annual Schubert music event in Austria.

Schubert wrote the Fifth specifically for these friends— deliberately tailoring the music to what they could play well. That is why the score does not include trumpets, clarinets, or timpani but small and intimate wind instruments such as flutes, oboes, horns, and strings. The result is a light and spring-like melodious sound reminiscent of Mozart, who Schubert deeply admired.

The symphony received its little domestic premiere in Hatwig’s drawing room—and then seems to have been forgotten. It was not performed publicly until 1873, more than four decades after Schubert’s early death at age 31, when it was played at London’s Crystal Palace. The composer never heard his own symphony played by a professional orchestra.

Schubert’s Fifth was not written for posterity. It was written for people he loved, a music to be played in a salon among friends. That intimacy is built into every note of the score. Maybe this is why there is something graceful and kind about the Fifth Symphony. Even though it never received the thunderous fame of the “Unfinished Symphony” or the Great C major Symphony, the Fifth today is one of the composer’s most popular orchestral pieces.