Robert Schumann:
Symphony No.1 in B-flat major op.38 'Spring'
Symphony No.4 in D minor op.120.
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor
Recording: 03/2007
Skeptics are now convinced: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski has something new to say about even the world’s most frequently recorded works - Beethoven’s nine symphonies - because he embodies the old school of great conducting tradition but combines it with the achievements of historically informed performance practice. The Saarbrucken Beethoven Cycle (OC 526) is a worthy successor to the almost legendary recording of Bruckner’s symphonies (OC 207) under Skrowaczewski’s baton. With the new orchestra, the German RSO Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern, the Polish-born American resident has now begun to record Robert Schumann’s symphonies. While the Symphonies No. 1 & 4 presented here were recorded with the old Saarbrucken forces, the cycle will be continued with the newly fusioned orchestra.
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern
The Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern is entering its first season in September 2007. Being the first orchestra that has originated from the merging of two major radio orchestras, it continues the rich tradition of both the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra (SR) and the Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern (SWR). The home of the new orchestra is Saarbrucken and Kaiserslautern.
In the 2007/2008 season the orchestra will record Robert Schumann’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 under the baton of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
This recording of the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 was still made with the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Saarbrucken RSO was founded in 1937. After its formative years under Rudolf Michl, the orchestra was shaped by Hans Zender from 1972 to 1984 and gained a reputation for its excellent interpretations of contemporary music. Each of the following head conductors (Myung- Whun Chung, Marcello Viotti, Michael Stern and Gunther Herbig) has contributed his own artistic focus. Since autumn 2006, Christoph Poppen has been head conductor of the orchestra.
Robert Schumann
* June 8, 1810 in Zwickau
† July 29, 1856 in Endenich (near Bonn)
The symphony - landmark of a compositional career
In the 19th century, composers had to write successful operas, oratorios or symphonies to achieve greater public recognition. Robert Schumann knew this. As early as 1833, when he began failing as a pianist due to paralysis of the middle finger of his right hand, he wanted to try out new perspectives by composing a symphony. The work remained a fragment, however. Seven years later, after his marriage on September 12, 1840, he immediately returned to symphonic composition - among other reasons certainly due to the pragmatic grounds that he would now have to achieve some sort of success to finance the upkeep of his newly founded household. Despite this, a first symphonic attempt in C minor from October 1840 remained stuck in its early stages. Schumann didn’t experience his breakthrough as a symphonic composer until three months later. In only four days, from January 23 to 26, 1841, he sketched all four movements to his Symphony in B-flat, now known as his first symphony.
The “Spring Symphony”
Schumann designated this symphony as a “Spring Symphony” even while sketching it. The meaning of this title can be seen from a dedication Schumann penned on the back of a portrait of himself that he sent to poet Adolf Bottger. Underneath the symphony’s opening fanfare, which Schumann wrote down, he writes, “Beginning of a symphony brought about by a poem of Adolf Bottger.” Bottger’s poem ends with the line “Im Tale bluht der Fruhling auf!” (“Spring is flourishing in the valley!”). The German words can be sung to the rhythm of the opening fanfare with no further ado. Their eight tones thus form a hidden literary motto, whose message is immediately apparent to the ear through the brilliant sound of the horns and trumpets. These measures have a precedent: up to and including the melodic formulation they are identical to the horn solo from the Great C Major Symphony of Franz Schubert.
Schumann himself poetically and inimitably described the introduction’s musical events in a letter to conductor Wilhelm Taubert: “Just like the first trumpet entrance, I want it to sound as though it comes from on high, like a call to awaken - in the following part of the introduction one might hear verdant nature, even a soaring butterfly, and in the Allegro, as little by little, everything that belongs to spring comes together.” These words fit the headings that Schumann wrote above the individual movements in his sketches: 1. The beginning of spring. 2. Evening. 3. Happy playfellows. 4. Complete spring. But before the work could be printed thus, Schumann removed these poetic titles.
Elan and elves
Even without knowing the title and literary references, all listeners hear the optimistic mood of the work. The rhythm of the opening fanfare - which could not be tighter - determines the main theme of the following Allegro molto vivace as well as the motives derived from it, which spread over the entire course of the movement. The episodic second theme doesn’t form as much a lyrical contrast as does the entirely new idea that is introduced in the development intensifies without cease. It leads into the triumphant return of the opening fanfare, which is the main theme in the recapitulation that now begins. The movement’s momentum suffices to support a vastly spun-out coda in which a completely surprising, new and profound songlike theme enters. This theme announces the sentimental mood of the second movement, an orchestral song without words, to which the composer lends a yearning but persistent character through the numerous rhythmic irregularities. In the last measures of the movement, the friendly atmosphere recedes to secretive trombone sounds. They anticipate - hardly noticeable to the unprejudiced ear - the begin of the following Scherzo. The teasing question-and-answer game of the strings and winds in the first trio, and the Beethoven-like tumult of the second trio are happily invented worlds away from the powerful first theme of this movement.
As does the first movement, the Finale also begins with a motto, a rising gesture in the entire orchestra that seems to call all living beings to joyous hustle and bustle. What follows is a moody last dance that happily brings in elements of Mendelssohn-like elfin romantic and in which the jaunty fanfare resounds in ever different transformations.
The work, which unites Beethoven-like elan and Mendelssohn-like natural romantic in a synthesis only Schumann could have created, immediately brought the composer the longed-for success at its premiere on March 31, 1841. The work was performed another 45 times during his lifetime: Schumann’s calculation - to gain public recognition with the composition of a symphony - worked out perfectly.
