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Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

The cycle of symphonies by Robert Schumann Polish conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern undertook to perform to much praise, is now nearing completion: After the Symphonies No. 1 and 4, which were published by OehmsClassics in the previous year, we may now enjoy the Symphonies No. 2 and 3 as well. Written in 1845/46, the Symphony No. 2 is an example of versatile aesthetic points of view. In terms of formal structure, the work presents a classical piece of music, while the contrapuntal elements are reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gestures and expression, on the other hand, are clearly indebted to Romanticism; and we furthermore find quotes from Bach’s Musical Offering as well as from Beethoven’s song cycle To the Distant Beloved. We cannot, however, say with absolute certainty why the Symphony No. 3, written in 1850, is subtitled the Rhenish. Schumann himself did mention his impressions of the ordination of a cardinal in the cathedral in Cologne in the context of the next to last movement. The Third is the only Schumann symphony in five movements, and the head movement is the first one not to feature a slow introduction passage.

Reminder of a “dark time” …

The Symphony in C major op. 61, which Schumann himself called his Second, was written at a time when the thirty-five-year-old composed very little because he was suffering from severe depression and was in a weak state of health. Schumann later commented: “I wrote the symphony in December 1845, while still ill; it seems to me that one must hear that in it. Only while working on the last movement did I begin to feel better; and I was indeed better after completing the work. In other respects though … it reminds me of a dark time.”

… the Second Symphony

The Second was actually the third symphony Schumann wrote, since he had composed the first version of what we know as the Fourth Symphony in D minor in 1841, before the Second. However, after its unsuccessful premiere and his failure to find a publisher who would accept it, he decided not to include it in his work catalogue. Ten years later, in 1851, he revised the work extensively and it became no.4 in the list of his symphonies.

I n common with most composers in the middle of the nineteenth century, Schumann’s compositional thinking never ceased to be dominated by Beethoven, who was something like the “symphonic wellspring”, his symphonies representing an unsurpassable climax that seemed to mark the end of the genre. “It was to be feared that the name ‘symphony’ had become a thing of the past”, as Schumann once stated resignedly.

Schubert as a means of orientation

The source of inspiration for Schumann’s Second Symphony was however Franz Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony, which he had heard again for the first time in six years in a concert on December 9, 1845. Schumann held it to be “the greatest instrumental work written since Beethoven”.

The experience seems to have lifted him out of his depression. Shortly after the concert, he noted in his housekeeping book that he was thinking about composing a new symphony (also in C major!). He completed the majority of the sketches in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 1845, but did not get down to the instrumentation until the late summer of 1846. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducted the premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on November 5, 1846, after which Schumann made several alterations to the first and last movements. Opus 61 is probably the most “Classical” of Robert Schumann’s four symphonies; the influence of Beethoven and also of Schubert is more clearly evident here than in his other three symphonies. Motivic and thematic work modelled on Beethoven is much more strongly marked in the Second Symphony than is usual in Schumann’s music. As in his First and Fourth Symphonies, the slow introduction to the opening movement represents a kind of germ from which the subject matter and rhythm of the movement develop. A fanfare-like motif in fifths in the brass and the dotted rhythm of the introduction dominate important parts of the first movement. The scherzo is dominated by impetuously onward-pressing semiquavers, and the fanfare-like coda of the scherzo relates to the opening movement. The lyrical element so typical of Schumann’s music is also apparent in the Second Symphony, in the two trio sections of the scherzo and particularly in the slow third movement. Striking sighing motifs and falling sevenths lend a particularly expressive character to the Adagio espressivo.

Sighing motifs, counterpoint and bold writing

The second trio of the scherzo and the slow movement incorporate counterpoint which recalls Johann Sebastian Bach’s style.

That is no accident, for both Robert and Clara Schumann intensively studied counterpoint and Bach’s music together from the spring to the autumn of 1845. That gave rise, among other works, to Schumann’s Four Fugues for pianoforte (op. 72) and Six Fugues on the name BACH for organ (op. 60). The contrapuntal passages in the C major Symphony are also unquestionably a result of those recent studies. The final movement contains a distinctive compositional feature: the exposition leads directly into the recapitulation without a development section, although the recapitulation does contain passages which resemble a development. The ecstatic final section of the fourth movement, which some music historians feel anticipates Anton Bruckner’s symphonic style, refers back to the preceding movements. In particular, the fanfare in fifths of the opening movement is given special emphasis, so that the introduction of the first movement and the coda of the last movement come full circle.



Creative urge

Robert Schumann’s creativity was greatly influenced by his fluctuating emotional states. He broke off his law studies to devote himself entirely to composing and writing. He was one of the founders of the periodical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, wrote many musical reviews and analyses, and in between always composed like a man obsessed, completing, for example, the sketches for his First Symphony in just four days and nights in an incredible application of willpower. Beethoven, the often overwhelming model for Schumann and his colleagues, had composed quite differently, often palpably struggling for months, sometimes even for many years with a single work. In 1850 Robert Schumann was full of zest and champing at the bit. In September he and his family moved to Düsseldorf, capital of the Prussian Rhineland province, and there he was introduced to his duties as municipal director of music. They included planning and developing the music society’s subscription concerts, rehearsing the choral society and organizing special musical events in two of Düsseldorf ’s large churches.

The Third Symphony

Schumann and his wife Clara were cordially received by the Rhinelanders. Schumann naturally wanted to meet their expectations and set to work at once. In October he wrote a cello concerto which was very popular and to this day forms an integral part of the concert repertoire. His idea to write a new symphony came directly after the completion of the concerto. The progress of the symphony is well documented, since Schumann was in the habit of noting in the score the date on which he completed each movement. He started writing the work on November 2, 1850 and worked in a creative frenzy. He began by noting the themes and most important motivic and thematic developments at great speed. He completed the symphony on December 9.

Schumann was a Romantic composer through and through. He incorporated sensual and poetic impressions into the Third Symphony with extreme sensitivity. One of those impressions was the overwhelming one of seeing Cologne Cathedral for the first time. It is in fact supposed to have inspired him to write the work. Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, Robert Schumann’s first biographer, claimed that the composer’s “first impulse to write the new work” came from “the sight of Cologne Cathedral”. We do at least know that Schumann spent a good deal of time going round the cathedral on November 5 and 6, 1850 – which coincides with his initial feverish burst of work on the Third Symphony.

A cornucopia of ideas

The first movement is headed “Lebhaft“. Without a slow introduction, it spiritedly plunges straight into the principal theme, which rings out like a signal and sounds in broad and full-sounding manner in the entire orchestra. Characterized by large intervallic leaps and complex rhythmic structure, the theme contains sufficient musical substance for numerous motifs to be derived and developed out of it. Schumann does that in the development section, in which he varies his initial material according to all rules of the art and introduces ever new harmonies and instrumental colours. He then prepares the recapitulation with the principal theme in the horns. It is very short and concentrates the various developments of the first movement.

Headed “Scherzo – sehr mässig”, the second movement is in leisurely triple time. It is a ländler, a dance which originated in Austria and was often danced in southern Germany. The theme of this ländler is clearly structured, so that this part of the symphony is contemplative, with a few minor dissonant accents which do not darken the mood of the movement appreciably. A scherzo typically has a trio in a somewhat slower tempo. In the Third Symphony it is marked by a “pedal point”, a long sustained note over which the winds play a tender melody.

Headed “Nicht schnell“, the third movement contains three musical ideas that are all similarly harmonized. That trick allowed Schumann to overlap them and link them with one another without complicating the happily lyrical mood with too much motivic and thematic work.

Going against the grain

A Classical symphony normally consists of four movements. Here Schumann breaks the rule. He additionally inserted a fourth movement, headed “Feierlich“, which is not yet the final movement. There have been speculations that the reason for his adopting this idea emerged from his original heading for the movement: “In the character of the accompaniment to a solemn ceremony”. Musicologists have played with the idea that Schumann composed this music when the archbishop Johannes von Geissel was made a cardinal. Yet Schumann did not attend the celebrations at Cologne Cathedral on November 12, 1850. He was ill on that day and kept to his bed in Düsseldorf. That original heading should therefore not be taken too literally, especially since because Schumann later deleted it.

Schumann derives the solemn mood from a close contrapuntal fabric woven together from the individual voices and by using trombones. A syncopated rhythm aimed against the main beats additionally imparts a strict, almost archaic character to the events. This movement was a riddle to Schumann’s wife Clara, who noted in her diary: “Which of the five movements I like best I cannot say … But the fourth is the one that is still least clear to me; it is extremely ingenious, that I can hear, but I cannot follow it properly, while there is hardly a bar in the other movements which is not clear to me.”

Headed “Lebhaft“, the final movement of the symphony links numerous ideas and motifs from the preceding movements and brings everything together in a short fugue. At the beginning of the last section (coda), the trombones once again make a striking appearance. The music at this juncture gives the impression of a node having been severed and a breakthrough created.

The premiere of his Third Symphony in February 1851 brought Schumann great satisfaction. He had conducted the performance himself and been cordially celebrated by the audience. The popularity of the symphony certainly has to do with its relaxed mood and lightness. in a letter to his publisher Simrock, Schumann even referred to it as “folklike”, going on to say it reflects “a part of life here and there” – life in the rhineland, that is.