Using instruments and playing styles that the composer himself would have known, Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble conclude their survey of Schubert symphonies with the composer’s grandest and most ambitious contribution to orchestral music.

Schubert’s ‘Great C major’ Symphony is considered by many to be the greatest 19th-century symphony after Beethoven. It earned its nickname because of its sheer majesty and grandeur, and its ambition is clear from the noble horn melody that opens the work right through to the urgent, restless momentum of its fi nale.

Before it, Minkowski conducts the charmingly lyrical Third Symphony, aÂgraceful, humorous piece that Schubert wrote at the age of just 18.