Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1, Spring | Romanian Youth Orchestra and Cristian Mandeal

Youth Orchestra plays the Spring Symphony – the ideal pairing for this concert in the Konzerthaus Berlin, part of the 2021 Young Euro Classic Festival. The programme features Symphony No. 1 by Robert Schumann, often referred to as the Spring Symphony. The Romanian Youth Orchestra is conducted here by Cristian Mandeal.

(00:00) I. Andante un poco maestoso - Allegro molto vivace
(11:51) II. Larghetto
(17:56) III. Scherzo. Molto vivace
(23:07) IV. Allegro animato e grazioso

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) said of his first symphony that it was "born in a fiery hour." He came up with it over just four days in January of 1841, completing it in the following three weeks. The premiere took place on March 31 of that same year, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. The Spring Symphony title came from Schumann himself, who had originally even given the individual symphonic movements figurative titles; The Beginning of Spring, Evening, Merry Playmates, and Spring in Full Bloom. Shortly before going to press, however, Schumann redacted the movement titles to prevent the symphony from being classified program music. The collective title ‘Spring Symphony’ alone was retained. It was, after all, a poem on spring by Adolf Böttger that had inspired the composer to write his symphony on that theme in the first place.

Musically, Schumann picked up from Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C major – the ‘Great' – the score of which Schumann had seen during a 1839 trip to Vienna. It is above all the solemn call of the horns and trumpets at the beginning of the Spring Symphony that recalls Schubert's Great Symphony. Beethoven's influence, conversely, can be seen in the recurring themes that link the individual movements together. While Beethoven conceives a thematic idea and develops it purposefully throughout the subsequent movements, however, the movements of Schumann’s Spring Symphony are rather playfully interwoven.

Schumann's First Symphony emanates something bright, forward-looking and optimistic. It’s a homage to the springtime – and a well-chosen piece for a youth orchestra!

The Young Euro Classic Festival is the world’s most important platform of its kind for European classical music; of both the continuation of its traditions, and its development by young musicians of today. Each summer, orchestras from all over the world play for two-and-a-half weeks at the Konzerthaus, on Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt square.

© EuroArts Music International

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