Wellington Chamber Orchestra Play Schubert's 10th

It has taken 183 years to complete the main work in the Wellington Chamber Orchestra’s next concert!

Franz Schubert was working on his Symphony No. 10 when he died in 1828, but the sketches he left behind show clearly his intentions. Wellington-based conductor / composer Michael Vinten has taken these sketches and completed the orchestration of the work so that it can be performed as Schubert intended.

“I believe that the Schubert Symphony that we're performing on Sunday is a masterpiece,” says Vinten. “It is his last work and shows that in spite of his poor health his creative powers continued and it contains some of his most gorgeous melodies. Only his death robbed us of having this Symphony as part of the standard orchestral repertoire.

“His sketches show an advanced state of compositional development so it has been possible for me to complete each movement with some certainty and minimal compositional intervention. Although the sketches are complete in thematic material and harmony throughout there was still a need to create an authentic Schubertian orchestral texture. This process of ‘orchestration’, which would have been Schubert’s next task, is what I have carried out. “

Vinten will conduct the work along with incidental music by Sibelius written for the play Scaramouche, and a set of nine early songs by Gustav Mahler, with soloists Roger Wilson and Linden Loader. Vinten has also orchestrated these Mahler songs. “The songs, Mahler’s first set of Das Knaben Wunderhorn settings, convey fun and sadness in equal measure. They are perhaps more spontaneous than his later, more famous settings and are unjustly neglected. Mahler wrote them for piano but you can hear the orchestra trying to get out of them!”

Tickets are available at the door or from orchestra members.

For more information contact Stephen Gibbs, 021 366 539 or donkeymaysing@xtra.co.nz.

Event listed by Wellington Chamber Orchestra

View their other events or contact promoter