Performed and recorded alongside Gardiner’s Schumann, this digital-only release complements the two albums in the series (LSO0818 & LSO0844).

London Symphony Orchestra
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor

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Dating from 1841, Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo & Finale was originally conceived as a symphony, or ‘symphonette’ as he liked to call it, but having no slow movement he eventually republished it as this three-movement work. The work begins with a graceful and delicate Overture which quickly transforms into a stormy Scherzo. The lyrical trio section that follows provides a welcome contrast before the fast, fugato style Finale brings the work to a rousing close.

This digital-only release is a complement to Gardiner’s two Schumann albums (LSO0818 & LSO0844) on LSO Live.

London Symphony Orchestra
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor

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Recorded Live in DSD 256fs at the Barbican, London on March 11 and March 15, 2018, the new album follows their award-winning Mendelssohn cycle.  On this album, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra embark on a new journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann. Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticized unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.

Schumann: Symphonies No. 2 and 4, along with an excellent selection of albums from the London Symphony Orchestra are available today in DSD Stereo and DSD Multichannel at the Native DSD Music store.  Have a listen!

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From the dramatic first trumpet-call which awakens the frozen landscape, the First Symphony is a celebration of spring. It moves through the season and a gruff folksong Scherzo until finally a jubilant conclusion dances into summer.

Desperate, heartfelt and elegant, the Manfred Overture opens with an urgent impetus that only increases through the work, displaying the intense strife which lies ahead for its protagonist. Schumann’s Third is one of the composer’s most impressive, painting a euphoric picture of the German Rhineland in broad Beethovenian style and closing with an exhilarating finale.

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Mendelssohn wrote that the piece “lies very near my heart”, and with its stately grandeur and religiosity, plus its sheer magnitude, twice the length of any of his other symphonies, it stands amongst his most impressive works. Posthumously categorised by editors as his second symphony, it is also known as ‘Hymn of Praise’.

In an interview for The Arts Desk, John Eliot said: “It’s a piece I’ve been looking at for years, and I’ve never conducted it. I was a bit sceptical at first, thinking that it was the torso of a symphony with a cantata bolted on. But it isn’t. It’s a delight. It has a lot of the inventiveness and sheer melodic flow of the young Mendelssohn and it’s perfectly calibrated and constructed.”

This is the perfect end to Gardiner’s exploration of Mendelssohn. Summing up his feelings at the end of the project, he said: “My admiration for Mendelssohn has gone up enormously, as a result of really digging deep into these symphonies…it’s so rewarding with this group of players, they’re willing to go to the nth degree, in terms of detail of phrasing and articulation, and that’s a joy.”

Lucy Crowe, Soprano
Jurgita Adamonyté, Mezzo-Soprano
Michael Spyres, Tenor
Monteverdi Choir
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor

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From grappling with his two most popular symphonies, the ‘Scottish’ and ‘Italian’, one soon realizes how Mendelssohn absorbed foreign landscapes like a sponge, an impression reinforced by the exquisite water colors he found time to paint on his frequent travels.

His vivid impressions of Scotland first surfaced in his Fingal’s Cave overture (sketched in 1829 but not published until 1834), in which the polishing process entailed eradicating traces of learned counterpoint in favor of ‘the taste of seagulls and train oil’ (as he himself put it). Indeed, his approach to instrumentation was close to that of an artist selecting individual shades and mixtures of colors.

When once a fellow composer suggested to him, “Here pure purple is needed – the horns are dampening the splendor of the trumpets”, Mendelssohn replied, “No! No! That shouts too loudly. I want violet”.

London Symphony Orchestra
Maria João Pires, Piano (Schumann Piano Concerto)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor

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