(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conductor, Sir Adrian Boult
Part 1
Schubert's Grand Duo is one of the mysteries of music. The autograph manuscript, said to be one of the most flawless fair copies Schubert ever wrote, is laid out for piano duet; and the work dates from [he year 1824, when he was staying with the Esterhazys at Zseliz in Hungary. Yet its style is undeniably orchestral; as Tovey puts it, ' an arrangement of Beethoven's C minor symphony would hardly make the players feel more as if they were trying to play cricket with ping-pong bats.' It is known that Schubert wrote, probably in 1825, a Grand Symphony in C which has completely disappeared; it has therefore been conjectured that the Grand Duo and the Symphony are one and the same work. This belief, however, lacks the support of the special authorities on Schubert. Anyhow, whatever the origin of the Grand Duo may be, Joachim (with, one gathers, Brahms at his elbow) arranged it for orchestra. The work has, incidentally, been orchestrated by several other musicians in recent years. — Harold Rutland