Programme note
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony no 4 in D minor, Op 120 (Original version, 1841)
Andante con moto – Allegro di molto
Romanza: Andante
Scherzo: Prest
Largo – Finale: Allegro vivace.
In 1838, during a visit to Vienna, Schumann discovered the autograph score of Schubert’s Symphony No 9, the so-called ‘Great’ C major Symphony, neglected and still unperformed. The discovery had made him “tingle to be at work on a symphony”. Up until 1840 he composed little but solo piano music, but his long-delayed marriage to Clara Wieck that year coincided with a torrent of song-writing, and 1841 saw him devote himself, with equal single-mindedness, to orchestral music. He composed his First Symphony in January and February 1841. It was followed over the next few months by the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, and the first version of his Symphony in D minor, together with sketches for a symphony in C minor, which he never completed, and the Phantasie for Piano and Orchestra which became, a few years later, the first movement of his Piano Concerto.
The D minor Symphony was intended as a present for Clara’s birthday on 13 September. In his diary in March he noted his intention to write a ‘Clara’ symphony: “in it I will paint her picture with flutes and oboes and harps”. Together with the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, the D minor Symphony was first performed in Leipzig in December, but it was given a cool reception, prompting Schumann to withdraw the work.
Ten years later he revised and re-scored it. At first he called the new version Symphonic Fantasy, but changed the title back to Symphony before the first performance in March 1853, giving it the number by which we know it today. He also replaced the original Italian movement headings with German ones.
In its final form Symphony No 4 is Schumann’s most concentrated attempt at welding a multi-movement work into a unified whole. Themes recur across all four movements, which follow one another without breaks. The most important of the 1851 revisions are aimed at strengthening the links between the movements, smoothing the transition from the introduction into the first movement and from the Scherzo into the Finale. The other major difference is that the 1851 orchestration is thicker and heavier. Schumann erred on the side of caution in making sure that every important instrumental entry was covered as securely as possible, but Brahms, for one, preferred the lighter scoring of the first version. There are gains and losses in both scores – the original’s clarity of orchestration against the more compelling sense of unity in the later version – and now that the original is being played more frequently it seems likely that the two will simply coexist side-by-side.
The slow introduction is based on a gently falling and rising idea which moves, by way of a brief emphatic chordal passage and a quickening of the tempo, into the main section of the movement, with its bustling main theme. This is offset by two contrasting ideas which appear a little later: a tautly rhythmic theme for woodwind, and a smoother song-like melody for violins answered by flute and clarinet.
The slow movement begins with an expressive melody for oboe and cellos. The music of the first movement’s introduction returns, leading to the central section, based on a new theme, lazily floating downwards on solo violin. The oboe and cello melody, now joined by bassoon, closes the movement.
The Scherzo is fiery and vigorous, with a central trio section which brings back the solo violin music from the second movement in a new rhythm. This comes round again at the end of the movement, settling on a gently rocking figure, out of which the finale begins to emerge. Phrases from the first movement’s main theme gradually acquire momentum until a surge of string figuration sweeps the music forward into the Finale, launched by a new version of the first movement’s energetic woodwind theme. This exultant music is Schumann at his most celebratory. It accumulates irresistible energy and drive, swept along on a rhythmically propulsive current which twice accelerates towards the end to carry the symphony to its triumphant conclusion.
© Mike Wheeler
