Schumann: The Symphonies - Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin (2004)

Daniel Barenboim turned in a very decent if a touch heavy-handed account of Schumann's symphonies for DG with the Chicago Symphony, but this set is something else altogether: conducting of genius that immediately leaps to the top of the heap, sharing that position with the likes of Szell, Bernstein, and Sawallisch, while sounding better than any of them. Given the excellence of his Beethoven symphony cycle with these same forces, I expected good results from Barenboim, but nothing prepared me for music-making so gripping that you can play both discs and all four symphonies straight through at a single sitting and never once find your attention distracted (even at 2 am!). In fact there's so much going on here interpretively that verbal description can barely scratch the surface–but imagine Szell's care with balances (and liberal instrumental retouching here and there) allied to a healthy dose of Bernstein's animal energy and Sawallisch's light textures and ability to float a phrase at speed, and you'll have a good picture of what to expect. Barenboim doesn't put a foot wrong anywhere and these are some of the most treacherous works in existence.

Take the Rhenish, for example, which receives a performance for the ages. In the opening movement the clarified textures (note the added brass bringing out the canonic wind parts in the first theme's counterstatement) and fleet tempos carry the music along as if self-propelled. Even the great horn call toward the end isn't just blasted out, but instead is phrased and shaded in a way that adds character without a trace of affectation. Barenboim's handling of the (from a purely formal standpoint) dysfunctional development section completely dispels any suggestion of that "Aren't we wandering around in circles?" phenomenon that traps lesser versions in a quagmire of repetitive tedium. The fourth movement has immense grandeur, while the foursquare finale sports uncommon grace and buoyancy.

In the Fourth Symphony the lyrical response to the first movement's motto theme offers a veritable clinic on how to use rubato without breaking the long line (as Thielemann invariably does, for example); and Furtwängler himself could learn a lesson from the transition to a finale that for once doesn't suffer a major loss of tension as it heads into its sequential second subject, thanks in part to exquisite dynamic shading. Time and again, Barenboim shows his unerring sense of finding just the right tempo, whether it's the First Symphony's scherzo, the Second Symphony's Adagio, or the Rhenish Symphony's second movement. But within the basic framework there's a whole world of expression, with strings rich toned but always willing to yield the floor to the winds, and carefully edited timpani parts that always register firmly but never cloud Schumann's thickly scored climaxes. Sectional balances are as poised and "right" sounding as the tempos. How else to explain that pellucid, inner glow that Barenboim achieves throughout the Spring Symphony?

Indeed, the Staatskapelle Berlin is every bit as much the star of this show as is Barenboim, playing with the same pride and dedication as their Dresden colleagues did for Sawallisch or the Clevelanders for Szell, but with a richer bass than the former and a more warmly rounded sonority than the latter (though of course the glorious recorded sound helps enormously). If you love these symphonies then you simply must own this set–it contains music making of true "golden age" greatness and once more demonstrates that a questing musical mind allied to abundant talent and technical proficiency always will find something new in the classics.

Composer: Robert Schumann
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra

Tracklisting:

1. Symphony no 1 in B flat major, Op. 38 "Spring" by Robert Schumann
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1841; Germany
Date of Recording: 03/2003
Venue: Studio no 1, NLG GmbH Berlin, Germany
Length: 34 Minutes 44 Secs.

2. Symphony no 2 in C major, Op. 61 by Robert Schumann
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1845-1846; Germany
Date of Recording: 03/2003
Venue: Studio no 1, NLG GmbH Berlin, Germany
Length: 37 Minutes 35 Secs.

3. Symphony no 3 in E flat major, Op. 97 "Rhenish" by Robert Schumann
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1850; Germany
Date of Recording: 03/2003
Venue: Studio no 1, NLG GmbH Berlin, Germany
Length: 33 Minutes 24 Secs.

4. Symphony no 4 in D minor, Op. 120 by Robert Schumann
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1851; Germany
Date of Recording: 03/2003
Venue: Studio no 1, NLG GmbH Berlin, Germany
Length: 33 Minutes 12 Secs.
Notes: Composition written: Germany (1841).
Composition revised: Germany (1851).