Help
Skip to main content

US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details

Special offer. Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 'Unfinished' & 9 'The Great'

Gewandhausorchester, Herbert Blomstedt

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 'Unfinished' & 9 'The Great'

Awards:

These two discs hardly need reviewing: they contain perfect performances of two of the greatest symphonies ever written, recorded with extra directness and detail...I’d put these performances...

Special offer. Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 'Unfinished' & 9 'The Great'

Gewandhausorchester, Herbert Blomstedt

Purchase product

2 CDs

Original price $17.50 Reduced price $14.00

In stock: usually despatched within 1 working day

Download

From Original price $17.50 Reduced price $10.00

Download

Audio formats guide

96 kHz, 24 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

Original price ($17.50) Reduced price $10.00

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

Original price ($13.75) Reduced price $10.00

320 kbps, MP3

$10.00

This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 96 kHz, 24 bit

Awards:

These two discs hardly need reviewing: they contain perfect performances of two of the greatest symphonies ever written, recorded with extra directness and detail...I’d put these performances...

About

'The 94-year-old elder statesman of classical music' (The New York Times) joins forces with the Gewandhausorchester for a Schubert programme of Symphonies No. 8 ('Unfinished') and No. 9 ('The Great'), released just in time for his 95th birthday on 11th July 2022. The choice of repertoire for his late debut with Deutsche Grammophon was quickly made: Herbert Blomstedt, at 94 the world's 'longest-serving' conductor and still one of the most vital, chose Franz Schubert's last two symphonies, the 'Unfinished' in B minor and the 'Great' in C major. With the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which he presided over as Gewandhauskapellmeister from 1998 to 2005 and has since been closely associated with as honorary conductor, he had at his disposal an orchestra that is very familiar with Schubert's music.

Contents and tracklist

I. Allegro moderato
Track length14:48
II. Andante con moto
Track length11:06
I. Andante - Allegro ma non troppo
Track length15:20
II. Andante con moto
Track length14:37
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Track length15:10
IV. Allegro vivace
Track length16:22

Awards and reviews

  • Record Review
    9th July 2022
    Record of the Week
  • Gramophone Magazine
    September 2022
    Editor's Choice
  • BBC Music Magazine
    October 2022
    Orchestral Choice
  • Opus Klassik Awards
    2023
    Nominated - Conductor of the Year

October 2022

These two discs hardly need reviewing: they contain perfect performances of two of the greatest symphonies ever written, recorded with extra directness and detail...I’d put these performances in a category of their own, with a health warning.

September 2022

Blomstedt’s Eighth and Ninth...infuse a lifetime’s collected wisdom, experience and affection into a rather special recording.

9th October 2022

To be ambushed anew by a work as familiar as the Unfinished is thrill enough. But the Swedish conductor and his Leipzig players go at it as if no interpretive precedent or milestone mattered one jot: this is fresh clay, willing itself to be moulded into majesty.
View download progress