Repertoire: Schumann - Symphony No. 2 - an Introduction

First performance: November 5, 1846, at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. Conductor: Felix Mendelssohn.

This is one of the most enigmatic works of its period. It is hard to pull off but everyone has had a go.

So many conductors have failed to make a mark with this work - Klemperer was somewhat stiff, Karajan got bogged down thanks to his heavy reliance on his strings. Karajan heard to say “never again” after a traumatic live performance. Szell’s magic mastery has a few spots where the Cleveland gears grind. Kubelik makes it work twice without grandiosity (on DG and RCA). The historically informed performance people have had a go too but can’t retrofit their style to the Schumann and Mendelssohn’s Gewandhaus orchestra. Notably Jochum, Beecham, Walter and Bohm avoided it. 

The first recording in the 1951 Stereo guide was - Enesco with the London Philharmonic. By 1955 Schuricht and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra link us back to the Beethovenian nature of this symphony.

In pre-1950s in America the trail blazers were Ormandy and Mitropoulos. Pfitzner was on Polydor (Germany) too. 

The reference recording nowadays is said to be the early seventies set by Sawallisch who benefitted from recording with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Many more conductors have had a go nowadays, I think they regard it as a challenge.

But it wasn’t always in vogue….

The authors of the UK Record Guide in 1951 said the following of Schumann and his symphonies:

“Schumann’s four symphonies are unlikely to vanish completely from the repertoire for they contain much beautiful music; but none is a success as a whole. Schumann’s transitions and crescendos are as mechanical and empty as Tchaikovsky‘s and he lacked the sense of pure musical drama which is the born symphonist most powerful weapon.”

So the choice is yours…