Special offer. Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works Vol. I
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger
Holliger’s profound empathy for Schumann shines through these outstanding performances which sustain a miraculous transparency of orchestral texture without sacrificing expressive intensity.
Special offer. Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works Vol. I
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger
Purchase product
Holliger’s profound empathy for Schumann shines through these outstanding performances which sustain a miraculous transparency of orchestral texture without sacrificing expressive intensity.
About
This CD launches a complete series of recordings of Robert Schumann’s orchestral works, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Heinz Holliger.
The series will contain all the symphonies (including both versions of the Fourth) as well as all the overtures and concertos. Holliger’s performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann’s music, thought, personality and fate. His approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores through a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately gradated dynamics and invigorating tempos. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator receives a refreshing and well-grounded correction.
Volume 1 of the series presents the First Symphony in B-flat major (Op. 38), Overture, Scherzo and Finale (Op. 52) and the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony in D minor (Op. 120).
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
Christmas Issue 2013
Holliger’s profound empathy for Schumann shines through these outstanding performances which sustain a miraculous transparency of orchestral texture without sacrificing expressive intensity.
December 2013
Holliger is one of those musicians who hears what he conducts from the inside, a crucial virtue in Schumann and a neat way to disqualify curmudgeonly commentators who wrongly accuse Schumann of ineptitude in orchestration...Holliger is en route to a complete cycle...His may well be the one to go for.
13th October 2013
Holliger’s music-making, as oboist, conductor and, indeed, composer, reaches depths through being constantly on the edge, and that makes him eminently suitable as a champion of Schumann...Each reading possesses that winning Schumannesque mixture of urgent fervour and spacious grace.
7th November 2013
These are all traditional performances, but the touch is always light, and Holliger's ear for texture acute.
