Herbert Blomstedt Franz Schubert
Franz Berwald

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) composed his first five symphonies as a teenager, and he started work on his Symphony No. 6 as a 20-year-old in 1817. It shows clear signs of Schubert’s awe of the great composer of his time, Beethoven, as well as of the operatic composer Giaochino Rossini, whose music reached and captivated Schubert’s home city of Vienna in 1817. Not much of Schubert’s music was played in public during his lifetime, and his Symphony No. 6 received its premiere shortly after his death in 1828.

Franz Berwald (1796–1868) grew up in Stockholm, and at the age of 16 was employed as a violinist by the Royal Swedish Orchestra. He started composing at a young age, but his music remained unappreciated in his home country until after his death. He lived in Berlin for many years, then moving to Vienna, where he experienced his greatest successes. He wrote all of his four symphonies in the 1840s, but only the first was performed during his lifetime. The original manuscript of his Symphony No. 2 from 1842 disappeared, but the symphony was reconstructed and premiered in 1914.