Symphony No. 17 in C minor op. posth.

Promising Discovery

When a recording of this Symphony No. 17 by Friedrich Schneider appeared in 2002, it attracted some attention. Now, Breitkopf & Härtel presents the work that, like all Schneider’s symphonies, had remained unpublished, for the first time in a modern edition.

The composer does not use a pathetic-heroic tone as suggested by the key, but follows the urgent, roving, and cantabile character that the key has possessed, especially in early Romanticism since the “Sturm und Drang.” It is reminiscent of Franz Schubert who ventured a very similar reinterpretation of the classical symphony.

With this work Schneider succeeds in designing a remarkably coherent and carefully developed composition. A gain for the repertoire, since the symphony, composed in 1822 and premiered that year in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, shows so much merit.