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 apparently nervous during the interview, and nearly lost all sense of composure when the older man pointed out a minor problem in the work. This story is recounted by Anton Schindler, and is of unknown authenticity, as Schindler is known to be an unreliable biographer of Beethoven. Schubert's friend Josef Hüttenbrenner claims that Beethoven was not home when Schubert called, and the variations were left with the house staff. However, Johann Friedrich Rochlitz, the publisher of the "Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung", recounts an 1822 meeting of his with Schubert, in which Schubert claims to have discussed Rochlitz with Beethoven, and described