Unfinished History Universal-Publishers.com Universal-Publishers.com Unfinished History A New Account of Franz Schubert’s Symphony in B Minor Manuscripts, Paper, Handwriting, Structural Concepts, Compositional Dates, and an Essay on Performance David Montgomery In collaboration with Jean R. Dane Foreword by David Zinman Conductor Laureate, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Music Director, L’Orchestre Français des Jeunes Universal-Publishers.com Brown Walker Press Boca Raton Unfinished History: A New Account of Franz Schubert’s Symphony in B minor Copyright © 2017 David Montgomery All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Brown Walker Press Boca Raton, Florida • USA 2017 www.BrownWalker.com ISBN 978-1-62734-645-0 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-62734-646-7 (ebook) Typeset by Medlar Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd, India Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Montgomery, David, 1944 July 28- | Dane, Jean R. Title: Unfinished history : a new account of Franz Schubert’s B minor symphony / David Montgomery, Jean R. Dane. Description: Boca Raton, FL : Brown Walker, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017932933 | ISBN 978-1-62734-645-0 (pbk.) | ISBN 978-1-62734-646-7 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Schubert, Franz, 1797–1828--Criticism and interpretation. | Musicology. | Music--19th century--History and criticism. | Music--Performance. | BISAC: MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician. | MUSIC / History & Criticism. | MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical. Classification: LCC ML410.S3 M66 2017 (print) | LCC ML410.S3 (ebook) | DDC 780.903/3--dc23. Universal-Publishers.com In honor of my sister and brothers Bill, Chris, Mark, Paul Universal-Publishers.com Universal-Publishers.com Table of Contents Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements xi Foreword xiii Author’s Preface xv Introduction xxi 1. Scripts and Handwriting 1 Schubert and the Hüttenbrenners. The Dankschreiben and related documents. 2. The Orchestration Manuscript 39 Whose hands at work, and where? 3. Schubert’s Working Methods for D759 97 The quest for speed. 4. Structural Criteria for Redating the Symphony 119 Kinship with the late works. 5. Chronology 153 A theoretical history of the manuscript, its disappearance and reappearance, based on evidence from Chapters 1–4. Universal-Publishers.com6. An Essay on Performance 179 General Bibliography 217 Indices 225 [I. Schubert works mentioned, arranged by Deutsch number. II. Register of names.] Universal-Publishers.com Abbreviations BN Bibliothèque nationale de France. BSB Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Chalus I Alois A. Chalus, “Franz Schubert, der Musikus des Biedermeiers” in Der Kollege, (Vienna, 1963). Chalus II Alois A. Chalus, Franz Schubert und seine h-moll-Sinfonie im Blickpunkt seiner Freundschaft mit Anselm und Josef Hüttenbrenner (Vienna, 1965). Deutsch I Otto Erich Deutsch, Franz Schubert: Thematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke in chronologischer Folge, ed. Werner Aderhold (Kassel, 1978). Deutsch II Otto Erich Deutsch, Schubert: Die Dokumente seines Lebens (Leipzig, 1964). Deutsch III Otto Erich Deutsch, Franz Schubert: Die Erinnerungen seiner Freunde (Leipzig, 1966). DSB Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Facsimile I Franz Schubert, Sinfonia in H moll (Munich, 1923). Facsimile II Franz Schubert, Sinfonie in H-moll (Munich, 1978). GA Gesamtausgabe. Franz Peter Schuberts Werke (Leipzig, 1884–1897). GdMF Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. Hilmar I Ernst Hilmar, “Datierungsprobleme im Werk Schuberts” (Vienna, 1978). Hilmar II Ernst Hilmar, Verzeichnis der Schubert-Handschriften in der Musiksammlung der Wiener Stadt-und Landesbibliothek (Kassel, 1978). Hilmar III Ernst Hilmar, “Bausteine zu einer neuen Schubert-Bibliographie— Universal-Publishers.comvornehmlich der Schriften von 1929 bis 2000” (Tutzing, 2000). Katalog Ernst Hilmar/Otto Brusatti, eds. Katalog der Ausstellung der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek zum 150. Todestag des Komponisten (Vienna, 1978). Kreissle I Aus Schuberts Leben (Vienna, 1860). x Unfinished History Kreissle II Franz Schubert (Vienna, 1865). KUG Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, or Kunstuniversität Graz. LC Library of Congress, Washington DC. Letters Heinrich Werlé, Franz Schubert in seinen Briefen und Aufzeichnungen (Leipzig, 1951). Lexikon Ernst Hilmar/Margret Jestremski, Schubert-Lexikon (Graz, 1997). ML Morgan Library & Museum, New York City. NSA Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1963ff). NZfM Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Leipzig). OeNB/ÖNB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. StMV Steiermärkische Musikverein. WB Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, formerly Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek. WM Wien Museum Karlsplatz WZ Wiener Zeitung Universal-Publishers.com Acknowledgements Images from the Archiv, Bibliothek, und Sammlungen der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien are sanctioned by a general permission from the Gesellschaft. I thank the Gesellschaft for the use of these materials. Materials cited or reproduced from the Hüttenbrenner archives online and iden- tified with KUG object numbers are the property of Frau Dr. Gudrun Reiter of Graz and are on permanent loan to the Library of the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz. I thank the Library and Fr. Dr. Reiter for kind permission to use these materials. Materials reproduced from the Musiksammlung der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus are cited individually by their call or online identification numbers and sanctioned by a general permission. I thank the Wienbibliothek for the use of these materials. Materials reproduced from the Musiksammlung der Österreichische Nationalbiblio- thek are cited individually by their call or online identification numbers and sanctioned by specific permission. I thank the ÖNB for the use of these materials. Materials cited or reproduced from Schubert. Die Dokumente seines Lebens, abbreviated in this book as „Deutsch II“ were held in copyright by Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig (© 1964) and assigned in 1996 to Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden. I thank Breitkopf & Härtel for their kind permission to use these materials. Materials cited or reproduced from Schubert. Die Erinnerungen seiner Freunde, abbreviated in this book as „Deutsch III“ are held in copyright by Breitkopf & Härtel (© 1966). I thank Breitkopf & Härtel for their kind permission to use these materials. The Bärenreiter Verlag has given its kind permission to cite or reproduce materials from their publications shown in this volume. Examples and quotations cited are docu- Universal-Publishers.commented or identified individually as they occur. Other specific permissions are indicated or footnoted next to each citation or image. Universal-Publishers.com Foreword by David Zinman Conductor Laureate, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Music Director, L’Orchestre Français des Jeunes —An Untraditional Approach to A Traditional Work— The so called “well known” war horses that make up the canon of the classical repertoire are often burdened with the weight of a performance tradition handed down from cen- tury to century by other composers, performers, and our teachers. Since we have no recordings of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann et al playing their own works, in order to form a totally clear idea of proper performance tradition, we are left to struggle with the musicological information avail- able to us. However, with a thorough study of proper source materials, writings, per- formance practices, as well as one’s own well informed imagination, a perfectly valid interpretation is possible. My own first contact with Schubert’s “Unfinished” came at the age of nine via the radio. Bruno Walter was conducting the New York Philharmonic, so it was, most prob- ably, an unexceptional Saturday broadcast. Nevertheless, it opened up for me a Schu- bertian world of beauty I had never encountered before. Over the years I discovered recorded performances of the symphony directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sir Thomas Beecham, Arturo Toscanini, Otto Klemperer, and Universal-Publishers.comLeopold Stokowski. I had even played it in performances with my high school and con- servatory orchestras. But it was in Holland that I made my first attempts at conducting the work. My teacher, the celebrated French conductor Pierre Monteux, always described the B minor symphony as a valedictory work, romantic, dark, gloomy, and filled with xiv Unfinished History premonitions of the composer’s impending demise. Although he insisted that we play it “come scritto”, he would also demand that we make what he described as the “tradi- tional tempo modifications”—the introductory bars, slow and brooding, the first theme faster, a big ritardando leading into the delicious second theme, and then continuing on in a slower tempo, albeit a flexible one. He wanted the second movement to be slow and stately, and a clear contrast to the first movement. “ze last bars” he would say in his charmingly accented English, “zat is Schubert going up to le ciel!” He always conducted the symphony with a full string complement and with doubled woodwinds, as was the norm for his generation of conductors. In my own case, after many years of performing the Schubert symphonies in the romantic manner, I decided to eschew the “traditional” approach and start with a blank slate, so to speak. I had previously recorded the Beethoven