Your favourite Robert Schumann symphony recordings

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

My pick:

 

[Thor 7,635]

Embarassingly, I only have two Schumann pieces in my collection, and none of them are symphonies:

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

You and your Harmonia Mundi box!

[Thor 7,635]

16 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

You and your Harmonia Mundi box!

 

He, he. It really is the centerpiece of my physical classical collection - which is very skimpy compared to yours.

 

I have some 50 CDs, 20 LPs and 112 iTunes albums in the classical genre. But at some point, I'm set to inherit my father's music collection, which counts thousands of classical albums, both CDs and LPs. We'll talk then!

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

What about cassettes?

[Thor 7,635]

He gave all of his cassettes to me when I was a kid, and there weren't that many classical albums among them. I thought they were lost, but apparently my dad found at least some of them in the attic recently. I'm looking forward to seeing what they are when I go home for Christmas. I'm a child of the cassette age, smack between the LP and CD age - they were my MAIN medium for several years.

 

As for Schumann symphonies, I guess if I have a favourite, it would be the one that is referenced in Horner's WILLOW (the 7th?).

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

5 minutes ago, Thor said:

I'm a child of the cassette age, smack between the LP and CD age - they were my MAIN medium for several years.

 

Ditto.

 

6 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

As for Schumann symphonies, I guess if I have a favourite, it would be the one that is referenced in Horner's WILLOW (the 7th?).

 

He only wrote four, or five if counting the Overture, Scherzo & Finale.

[Thor 7,635]

So what's the one in WILLOW that people always refer to?

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

Quote

Willow’s theme is a slightly-altered version of the first movement from Robert Schumann’s 1850 Rhenish Symphony No.3.

 

https://moviemusicuk.us/2018/05/24/willow-james-horner/

[Thor 7,635]

Cool. I remember I did a side-by-side comparison a few years ago. The similarity is there, of course, but not quite as striking as people made it out to be. At least not compared to his use of the Gayane ballet piece in several films.

 

I like both the Schumann "original" and the Horner approximation.

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

The fourth symphony is the best, though.

[Marian Schedenig 8,240]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Cool. I remember I did a side-by-side comparison a few years ago. The similarity is there, of course, but not quite as striking as people made it out to be. At least not compared to his use of the Gayane ballet piece in several films.

 

It's as close as anything he copied in my opinion. And it's also a chief example of why the Horner way bothers me so much. He does a musical buildup to something, raising expectation, but then instead of bringing his own material (or in Willow's case, Prokofiev's...) to a conclusion, he suddenly cuts into a totally different, well-known piece of music, which betrays the buildup and immediately shatters any immersion I have by sending my brain on a search for where the quote comes from.

 

The only versions of the Schumann symphonies I'm familiar with are Dohnanyi's, which I picked up some 20+ years ago. I've always been happy with them.

 

[Thor 7,635]

29 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

It's as close as anything he copied in my opinion.

 

I disagree. A few bars, obviously, but then they go in completely different directions. But let's not turn this into yet another Horner debate. I kinda regret bringing it up.

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The only versions of the Schumann symphonies I'm familiar with are Dohnanyi's, which I picked up some 20+ years ago. I've always been happy with them.

 

 

It's a great orchestra, trained by the best!

[Tom Guernsey 2,316]

I really like the Mahler editions of Schumann's symphonies whereby Mahler which are essentially slightly re-orchestrated versions which lighten the textures somewhat - Schumann was a bit heavy handed with his instrumental doublings. There is an excellent recording of them performed by the Gewandhausorchester conducted by Riccardo Chailly. I'm sure it's sacrilege to recommend such a version, but Mahler's refinements really work.

[Marian Schedenig 8,240]

That was probably my second CD by them, after Szell's Beethoven 9. Several years before they chose an Austrian as their new boss.

[Bayesian 1,367]

I’m partial to Paul Paray’s recording of the four Schumann symphonies on MLP.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

I'll have to check that one out.

19 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Mahler's refinements really work.

 

Timestamps, please!

[Tom Guernsey 2,316]

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'll have to check that one out.

 

Timestamps, please!

For what? Where the orchestration is different? I think the changes are quite pervasive albeit relatively subtle... some useful information here: http://classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=21275

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

10 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

For what? Where the orchestration is different? I think the changes are quite pervasive albeit relatively subtle... some useful information here: http://classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=21275

 

I was thinking about timestamps when the improvement is very noticeable.

[Tom Guernsey 2,316]

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I was thinking about timestamps when the improvement is very noticeable.

I don’t know them well enough. I think it’s a general thinning of textures rather than huge changes. That link probably gives a good idea. If nothing else, the Chailly album is well performed and recorded.

[Jurassic Shark 12,227]

Just now, Tom Guernsey said:

I don’t know them well enough. I think it’s a general thinning of textures rather than huge changes. That link probably gives a good idea. If nothing else, the Chailly album is well performed and recorded.

 

The link sure is a good read.