Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) by default incomplete), and the even more undeniable fact that Schubert had begun a third movement in B minor (leaving precisely 30 bars of fully orchestrated scherzo and 112 succeeding bars in short score), stands against the view that the two completed movements can legitimately stand alone. Reviewing the premiere of the symphony in 1865, the music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote: He ended by stressing that the symphony is among Schubert's most beautiful instrumental works. In 1927–28, Felix Weingartner—better known as a classical conductor and the first to record all nine Beethoven symphonies and the second, after Stokowski, to record
Beethoven and his contemporaries exposed to Beethoven's music from an early age, and several of his works contain thematic resemblance to similar works of Beethoven. Even though both Schubert and Beethoven resided in the same city, and Schubert held Beethoven in the highest of esteem, they moved, for the most part, in different social circles for most of that time. Their first meeting was apparently in 1822, when Schubert, accompanied by the publisher Anton Diabelli visited Beethoven. Schubert had dedicated a set of "Variations on a French Song" (Op. 10, D.624) to Beethoven, and wanted to present the dedicatee with a copy. Schubert was