Schumann: Symphonies Nos 1 and 3 – review

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie/Järvi
(RCA)

Paavo Järvi's pairing of the Spring and Rhenish symphonies follows recent Schumann cycles from Sakari Oramo and the Stockholm Philharmonic, and Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Järvi's performances with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, though, arrive under the grandiose umbrella of "The Schumann project", the successor to the same combination's Beethoven project, which generated their cycle of the symphonies for RCA. What these Schumann performances are going to take account of, apparently, is yet more newly published research into the pathology of Schumann's "madness", which proposes that he was neither bipolar or syphilitic but an alcoholic, whose binges were mistaken by doctors as madness, and that Clara Schumann and Brahms colluded in the misdiagnosis in getting him committed to an asylum. What any of that has to do with the composition of the symphonies, let alone interpreting them, I don't know, and Järvi's performances don't offer any special insights. Both the First and Third Symphonies receive agile, cogent accounts, but there's nothing to recommend them over a number of other recent recordings.

Contributor

Andrew Clements

The GuardianTramp

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