Schumann: Symphony No. 1; Overture to Hermann und Dorothea, Op. 136 - Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Masur

Schumann's Symphony No. 1 liner notes

"Spring's Awakening," “Evening, " "Merry Playmates,” "Spring's Farewell." These are Schumann's original titles for the movements of his first symphony. They were later discarded as superfluous, but their very existence gives an essential clue to the composer's attitudes, methods, creative process. " I am affected by everything that goes on in the world and think it all over in my own way, politics, literature and people, and then I long to express my feelings and find an outlet for them in music." A discussion of this statement's implications would inevitably lead to an examination of the Romantic Period's various sources of inspiration, which is far beyond the scope of some introductory notes to one of its loveliest products; suffice to say, we may be certain that extra-musical -- musico-poetic -- stimuli underlie Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 just as they do virtually all Schumann's compositions of his most productive and inspired earlier years. The "Spring Symphony dates from 1841, Schumann's "year of orchestral music." Until 1840 he had written piano music almost exclusively. In that year, the year of his long-struggled-for marriage, he turned his attention to song. And in 1841 the full orchestra claimed his interest. (In 1842 he again changed directions and produced a series of chamber pieces: quartets, piano quartet and piano quintet.) Although he had much earlier attempted a symphonic work, a G Minor Symphony only recently first recorded and not published in his lifetime, the B-flat Symphony must take its place as his first official orchestral achievement. Considering the composer's lack of familiarity with this medium, it is remarkable that the entire work was written in an incredibly short time of less than two months.