All we hear played today of Schubert's Symphony No 8 in B minor are the first two movements. Familiarity with this sublime fragmentary masterpiece, written in 1822 when Schubert was 25, has led most of today's concert audiences to believe that this is how Schubert wanted it and how it should remain - a sort of symphonic lollipop - forever 'The Unfinished.'
But Dr Gerald Abraham has not only completed the third movement from Schubert's own sketches. He believes passionately that the full score of the missing fourth and last movement has been sitting around all this time disguised under another name. Tonight he states his reasons and the 'Finished' version will have its first complete performance on television.
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra leader Erich Gruenberg conducted by Neville Marriner
Introduced by Kenneth van Barthold