Robert Schumann on Franz Schubert's C Major Symphony

"I'll say it most frankly: he who does not know this symphony, knows but little of Schubert, and after that, which Schubert has already given to Art, this may be perceived as praise that is hardly to be believed...

Here there is, beyond the masterful musical technique of the composition, yet life in every fibre, color even in the most delicate nuance, significance everywhere, the keenest expression of the particular, and finally the whole suffused with a romanticism, that Schubert is known for from elsewhere. And the heavenly length of the symphony...

It must always be called an extraordinary talent, that he, who heard so few of his instrumental works during his lifetime, succeeded in such an idiomatic treatment of the instruments on the scale of the orchestra, that often speak all at once like human voices and the choir. This likeness to the singing voice have I never come across, outside of many a Beethoven work, in such a striking and surprising way..."