Robert Schumann:
Symphony no.1, B-flat major, op.38 "Frühling"
Symphony no.2, C-major, op.61
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik
1979. Sony Classical (Essential Classics) SBK 48 269, budgetprice
There are a few mysteries in the musical world that I can't seem to figure out. Among the most pressing ones is the negligence for Schumann the symphonist. Why on earth isn't this great composer, readily acknowlegded for his pianominiatures and liedercycles, still not accepted as a maker of the finest of romantic symphonies? Listening to Kubelik's accounts of the two first symphonies only adds to the mystery - there is splendour here to last a lifetime.
Robert Schumann would find a source of great importance in the last symphonic work of the late Franz Schubert. The latter's ninth symphony (D.944), a fullscale romantic work, would prove most inspiring on Schumann. He had completed his first example of the genre by 1841, a symphony nicknamed "spring" from some of the composer's notes on the work. The symphony is a 4 movements structure beginning with an Andante. The staggeringly original musical language, has perhaps been a main reason for these works' relative peripheral position in music history. The drama of the "Spring" symphony, comes through in a powerful and concentrated way in Kubelik's reading; an interpretation sensetive to Schumann's often shifting and labile emotional register. Highspirited joyfullness, mighty and pathosfilled passages, mingled into wonderful calmness and a sense of ease and beauty in the larghetto.
However it is primarily the second symphony which captures my attention, on this fine disc. Of Schumann's four escapades into the symphonic realms, the second, in C-minor is the finest - atleast in my humble opinion. The work's initial slow and mighty introduction leads us into an allegro as vivacious as it is elegant. There is a feel of excess, of greatness, of triumph, much akin to that one encounters in Schubert's ninth. There are also more that traces of another of Schumann's prime sources of admiration and inspiration, the great master himself - Beethoven. The scherzo' s ludic and goodhumored ambience leads us through a haunting adagio, pointing forward in time towards Mahler. The symphony ends in the final allegro's splendour and grand elegance. Kubelik's potent and concentrated reading offer a first rate rendering of this masterpiece, although I personally wouldn't count Wolfgang Sawallisch and his Dresden crew out of the competition (EMI). Nevertheless I find Kubelik slightly ahead in dramatic ardour and concentration. Whichever of these recordings you may chose, you will not walk away dissapointed. And, by the way they're budgetpriced, so why not get both. I tell you, Schumann the symphonist is worth it.
2000 arne.mork@yahoo.com
