# Schumann's Symphonies



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Do you have a favourite, if indeed you like Schumann? At present I am listening to the 1st and it certainly is an emotional, tidy piece of music. I am always taken by the Rhenish I have to admit with it's wonderful slow movement.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

_Overture, Scherzo and Finale_


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

the 2nd is firmly established as one of my favourite symphonies by any composer.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

jim prideaux said:


> the 2nd is firmly established as one of my favourite symphonies by any composer.


Same here. Great symphony and loads of great recordings of Schumann 2, too.*

_(* Warning: opinions about favourite symphonies may change from day to day, chez Merl)_


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2019)

The third is my favourite. 

And preferrably using the original orchestration, not the awful versions most conductors go for.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I recently picked up the Gardner set and discovered the wonderful early unfinished G minor "Zwickau" symphony along with the early version of the 4th. The Second is still my favorite.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

As a llstener: I love the 2nd. That slow movement is just so achingly beautiful. I still remember a live concert with Sinopoli and the London Philharmonic playing it. Heavenly and so electrifying. I love all of these symphonies and there are so many wonderful recordings: Bernstein (VPO), Karajan, Kubelik, Szell, and most of all, Barenboim, scoring changes and all.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

The 4th is my fav! Back in the days when I could tickle the ivories I used to play the 4th movement. (I played it very badly but it was still fun; it's a fun piece of music). I think Opus 120 is the very model of a Romantic symphony and one of the true highlights of the post Beethoven, pre Brahms era.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Not a huge fan of Schumann, but No. 4 is the easiest to take for me.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I have long favored the Third, presuming the conductor takes the so-called scherzo at a measured pace, like the smoothly flowing Rhine, and not like an eight-man scull zipping past. 

The d-minor "Fourth" has always intrigued me because it sounds as if Schumann was hellbent on producing a Beethoven-sounding symphony but couldn't because he had a fundamentally different way of creating and working out motives.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I am a huge fan of his ‘Rhenish’ Third Symphony. I particularly like his writing for the brass section. I find tremendous goodwill and sincerity in all his works, including of course his four symphonies. But if I were new to Schumann, I would start off at the beginning with his writings for piano. The piano literature would be unthinkable without him..


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

My favorite Schumann Symphony is the First ("Spring"). Preferred interpretations are Kertesz's with the London Symphony on BBC Legends and Bernstein's with the New York Philharmonic. The Kertesz disc also includes his outstanding reading of the Brahms Second.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

........Deleted........


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I adore the Rheinische but my favourite is the 1841 Fourth where it marches on with finesse unlike the relatively squarish 1851 version.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Kiki said:


> I adore the Rheinische but my favourite is the 1841 Fourth where it marches on with finesse unlike the relatively squarish 1851 version.


Have to agree with that. Interesting that Clara wanted to suppress the original 1841 version while Brahms wanted to include it in his complete Schumann edition late in the century. Brahms went ahead with his plans.

Gardiner includes both versions in his Schumann symphony cycle, for those who want to compare.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

No.2 conducted by Solti. The timps at the close are given a good whack.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

To all those airing their love for the Second Symphony (the Cinderella of the four?), a big thumbs up from me. It's my favourite as well, it's such a beautiful and noble work.

I love all four, to be honest, and rate them too. To my cloth ears, there's nothing amateurish or incompetent about the orchestration. Maybe one will find Schumann's finest music in other pieces, or in other genres, but without any disrespect for his piano music and his songs, I don't believe that to be true.

I have a lot of time for the Overture Scherzo & Finale as well (is it an incomplete, or incompletable symphony??). furthermore, It's interesting to hear the two early Zwickau movements, but they're not up there with the rest of his symphonic works...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Phil loves classical said:


> Not a huge fan of Schumann, but No. 4 is the easiest to take for me.


Same here, but the 3d instead of the 4th.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

KenOC said:


> Have to agree with that. Interesting that Clara wanted to suppress the original 1841 version while Brahms wanted to include it in his complete Schumann edition late in the century. Brahms went ahead with his plans.
> 
> Gardiner includes both versions in his Schumann symphony cycle, for those who want to compare.


Kudos to Johannes for his defiance! And to Gardiner, Rattle, Harnoncourt, Holliger & co. who recorded it.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I like them all, but I’m a bit surprised to see so much love for the Second. For me the Rhenish and the Fourth have always been the most satisfying. We were at a concert a couple of years ago that featured the Second as the concert finale after Beethoven’s Third PC, and while I enjoyed it my companions felt that the Second was to lightweight of a piece to close with


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Triplets said:


> I like them all, but I'm a bit surprised to see so much love for the Second. For me the Rhenish and the Fourth have always been the most satisfying. We were at a concert a couple of years ago that featured the Second as the concert finale after Beethoven's Third PC, and while I enjoyed it my companions felt that the Second was to lightweight of a piece to close with


Surprised perhaps, however I am surprised when the 2nd does not get the recogntion I believe it warrants!

Interestingly enough th e last word I would use is 'lightweight'.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

To Mahler or not to Mahler them?

I do like the Chailly recording


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I suck at these "what is your favourite ..." threads. I can't choose. I love Schumann's symphonies. I always feel somehow that they are not as "symphonic" (logical, argued) as most great Romantic symphonies. I like quite a number of recordings, including some that Wagnerise the music (Celibidache, for example), some that are gentle and fresh (Holliger) and many others especially Sawallisch, Kubelik, Gardiner, Zinman ...


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Love his symphonies and everything else that he composed. Going for second symphony, even though a lot of people said the same. The third movement is so sublime and reflects his troubled life


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Bwv 1080 said:


> To Mahler or not to Mahler them?
> 
> I do like the Chailly recording


Me, too. I do wish Mahler hadn't made those small cuts in the Finale of the 2nd, though. I know why he did it, but it still ruins Schumann's plan. Mahler certainly did make the textures clearer albeit at the expense of that Schumann sound. The earlier recordings on Bis are completely outclassed by Chailly.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

The fourth is my absolute favourite and masterpiece. I like Bernstein's performance with VPO the most, but Klemper and PO/Szell and Cleveland are also excellent. My second favourite is the _Spring Symphony_.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I enjoy the Schumann symphonies, and each one has its own special charm.....I've performed them all, and they are quite rewarding to play...the slow mvts have some lovely passages for woodwinds...I don't buy this dogma that Schumann was a terrible orchestrator...perhaps a bit heavy on the octave doublings, and instrumental doublings...maybe he wasn't the greatest, but he was no slouch, either.

overall, I guess #3 is my favorite, but that could change on any given day....
I like Bernstein/NYPO for 3 and 4
Barenboim/CSO for #1
and Reiner/CSO #2, live from 1957

Solti/VPO, Szell/CO are good, too

Special mention for Barenboim/CSO on #2 - best scherzo II mvt.......really rips, virtuoso playing by string section!! Slow mvt is esp lovely as well..


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## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

The 2nd... Its beginning is so powerful yet not overwhelming like other symphonies openings tend to go towards


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

For me, the Sawallisch performances are great reference recordings... warm, sincere and _idiomatic_, though I never personally heard Schumann perform them live. But I would have liked to! 






I've heard the Chailly performances of the Mahler revisions and felt that they lacked a certain warmth, but I did enjoy the additional clarity in the orchestrations. Must hear them again to see if the impression was the result of Chailly or Mahler's changes. In general, wonderful symphonies. While Beethoven helped kick off the Romantic era, I see Schumann as its full embodiment, the consummate Romantic, and he also did an abundance of consummating with Clara. The Romantics were invested in creating the ideal world in which they would want to inhabit and Schumann did it with a house full of 8 kids, one for each instrument in the orchestra, except the tuba.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I like the Third best followed closely by the Second. The Fourth I just find irritating. I get bored with the repeated motives within minutes. Also irritating is its obvious aping of Beethoven's Fifth in its cyclic unity and especially in the transition between the third movement and finale.


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