I. Largo – Allegro vivace II. Andante III. Menuetto. Allegro vivace IV. Presto

Franz Schubert was 16 years old, a member of the Imperial court's boys chorus and a talented violinist in the student orchestra, when he decided to compose a symphony in D major as a birthday surprise for the director of the boarding house where he lived. This was Schubert's first symphony. We have no surviving document about the performance but we can presume it was performed by the student orchestra. The young composer, versed in the styles of Haydn and Mozart, attempted another symphony a year later, by which time he had left the boarding school and was himself a junior teacher at a primary school. He began work on December 10th and finished it about a fortnight later. He only felt he had truly finished it on March 24th 1815. He was then pursuing his composition studies under the famous Salieri, who was mightily impressed by his young pupil. Schubert's third symphony appeared a mere two months later after his second, by which time he had also contributed a number of other quite substantial works. The young composer had no hope of having these works performed, and it is possible that he did not write them with a performance in mind. The Symphony no. 2 only received its premiere in 1877, over half a century later, in distant London and was only published in 1884.

The first movement duplicates one of Haydn's favourite procedures with a slow introduction. The movement's theme is already eminently “Schubertian”, with its strong expressive rhythm and broad melodic sweep. Interestingly, the subsidiary theme was to resurface in a slightly altered version in Schubert C minor string quartet, written six years later. The first movement exposition is unusually long, and contains a fortissimo section employing the full orchestra, which many feel slightly unbalances the movement. Another feature to note is that the recapitulation is in the sub-dominant, rather than the almost obligatory tonic, a tactic that is certainly not unusual in Schubert's music generally. Theoretically, this solution ought to simplify the tonal completion of the movement, but Schubert found himself driven to further tonal deviations in the remaining bars of this movement.

The second movement is a theme and five variations on a very melodic tune. We can speculate that Mozart's “Il mio tesoro” from Don Giovanni inspired it but this cannot be proven convincingly. There are many other examples of melodic similarities, but this is the only instance when Schubert employs a variation form within a symphony. This movement strives for balance and smoothness of transition between variations, rather than the depiction of great contrasts.

The third movement is a tradition minuet, cast in C minor, a key which held such significance for the Viennese classical masters. Schubert does not seek to emulate the heroic pathos of works that inspired it (and the influence of Beethoven's Fifth is undeniable), and instead reproduces the character of a lively scherzo. The trio again exploits the possibilities inherent in orchestra instruments, and the woodwind indulge in some sprightly imitation games.

The final movement is perhaps the most mature section of the entire symphony and many writers have stated that this is the finest work of all Schubert's juvenilia. It is a presto in 2/4, a masterly amalgam of rondo and sonata form. We can clear see Schubert's majestic tonal imagination, as he regales the listener with the astringent pleasures of tonalities based on intervals of a third. The movement is characterised by the calculated entry of the instruments and the thickening of the musical texture, and the impression is architectural, with successive passages standing likes carved blocks of stone aside one another. We can recognise this procedure in other early Schubert works. This is why certain critics have described these works as being sloppy, but the listeners just needs to stand back and try and see the work as a whole, rather than confuse themselves with minute details. It is also indicative of Schubert's originality of mind, and it was not until well into the twentieth century that it was generally recognised that his innovative techniques are entirely valid.