This week I have been studying Schubert’s 5th Symphony. Composed when he was only 19 years of age in 1816, the first movement, marked Allegro, is absolutely joyous and flows like water from phrase to phrase. I have learnt that Schubert did not mark Allegro ‘con brio’ because he did not understand there to be any other meaning to the term at the time–the con brio was inevitable! Excellent salve to these pandemic times, and interestingly was written at a time of personal turmoil for the composer as he was growing into his enormous gifts but also confronting his new adulthood and all that came with it.
I have also been practicing my arrangement of Bach’s Violin Partita BWV 1004 for 7-string guitar, which I am very pleased is as rewarding as it is difficult to play! I have found a path through the Allemanda and the Corrente, though the latter of these two is still not fully ready for public performance and the former rather fresh.
Michael Poll 