Schumann pur

The endless E flat major melody flows through the entire orchestra in grand, buoyant breadth, barely restrained by the three-four time signature. This is the radiant splendour with which Robert Schumann’s Third, known as the «Rhenish» Symphony, which was composed in Düsseldorf in the autumn of 1850 in a brief, happy space of time, commences. A humorous, convivial Ländler and a kind of song without words follow – and are followed in turn by another movement full of solemn, sublime sounds before the turbulent, ultimately exuberant finale. In short: «a slice of Rhenish life in fresh cheerfulness», as one review of the premiere put it. But what do the gaiety and elan of this symphony tell us? What’s behind the archaic, mysterious dignity of the fourth movement headed «Feierlich» («stately»)? Albert Hosp and Ana Maria Patiño-Osorio on the podium join the Tonkunstler to offer fascinating answers.