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Schubert entered the Vienna Choirboys’ School at a tender age and astonished the priest in charge of admissions. Concerning his violin playing, the priest wrote, “Sight reads the most difficult pieces perfectly. This one learned it from God.” As a result, Frannie was one of a select group that was permitted to study with the headmaster, Antonio Salieri.

In the school orchestra, Schubert could play violin and viola equally well, and he quickly ended up as concertmaster. He also developed a crush on an older student, which led him to suspect that he was “different” in manner of which the Church and Austrian society would not approve. The conductor, a Czech, gave his orchestra a good grounding in Cherubini, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven’s first two symphonies. Salieri considered everything that Beethoven had written after the Second Symphony to be a waste of music paper – “Grotesque!” – so he kept Beethoven’s more recent pieces out of the repertory.

Once out of school, Schubert worked with an orchestra sponsored by a local merchant. In those days, merchants sponsored orchestras the way they sponsor Little League teams today. The orchestra met weekly at the merchant’s home, and Schubert became its conductor. Schubert’s first six complete symphonies were written for either the school orchestra or the merchant’s orchestra.

This opening movement from the Fifth Symphony shows its roots in Mozart, although Schubert doesn’t have Mozart’s sense of surprise. Still, it’s perfectly constructed from a classical perspective.

Schubert: Symphony #5 in B-flat, D. 485, first movement