Symphony No. 9 (Schubert) Symphony No. 9 (Schubert) The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944, known as the Great (published in 1840 as "Symphony No. 7 in C Major", listed as No. 8 in the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe), is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Originally called "The Great C major" to distinguish it from his Symphony No. 6, the "Little C major", the subtitle is now usually taken as a reference to the symphony's majesty. Unusually long for a symphony of its time, a typical performance of "The Great" takes around 55 minutes, though it can also be played in as
Symphony, D 708A (Schubert) for another seven years. British conductor and composer Brian Newbould, an authority on Schubert's music, has speculated that the symphony was left incomplete due to problems Schubert faced in orchestrating the sketch. In 2012, Newbould was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to complete the symphony. He had previously completed three other unfinished symphonies by Schubert (the seventh (D 729), eighth (D 759), and tenth (D 936A). At that time he had done work to make the existing fragments of D 708A performable, but this was his first attempt to go beyond the fragments and complete the entire structure. His completed