Georg SCHUMANN (1866-1952)
Symphony in B minor Prize-Winning Symphony (1887) [43:40]
A Serenade Op. 34 (1902) [29:46]
Münchner Rundfunkorchester/Christoph Gedschold
rec. 10-13 March 2009, Munchen BR Studio 1
CPO 777 464 2 [73:32]
At some point it will no longer be necessary to say that long-lived Georg
Schumann was unrelated to Robert Schumann; not yet though. That said, he is
the elder brother of Camillo Schumann, whose cello works featured on a Naxos
CD. Georg’s works have already had some recording attention. The Piano
Trios 1 and 2, opp. 25 and 62 have been recorded by the Münchner Klaviertrio
on CPO 777 712 2. His choral music can be sampled on Guild.
The latter was preceded by a complementary Georg Schumann anthology from the
Purcell Singers on ASV CD DCA1091. The connection with singing is unsurprising
given his lifelong involvement with and leadership of the Berlin Sing-Akademie.
He was born in Saxony into a musical family. Having been taught violin and
piano he quickly attained high standards. His musical alma mater
was the Leipzig Conservatory. There he perfected his craft. His orchestration
in particular, at least as represented on this disc, was highly skilled. While
Gottfried Eberle’s lucidly flowing notes make some play of the Mendelssohnian
style I thought much more often, in the Symphony, of Brahms and especially
the Brahms of the first two symphonies. This Symphony in four movements is
deeply satisfying. It is in the German romantic centre-stream originating
from the Hamburg master and further suckled from Schumann and Mendelssohn.
There’s a flowingly aureate Adagio, a quirky penultimate Allegro and a splendidly
stirring, happy and finally imperious finale - Allegro. In fact the first
movement is an Allegro also. Crudely put, you can think of this 45-minute
symphony as being in the character of Brahms 2 and Schumann 3. There was to
be at least one more symphony from him, written circa 1905 and in F minor.
The F minor is said to win the listener over by virtue of its strong sense
of unity.
The present Prize-Winning Symphony - it is Prize not Price
so you can ignore the booklet and insert typos – made 21-year-old Georg’s
name throughout the Germanic states.
Two decades onwards and the Serenade shows a more variegated mood palette.
There’s a vivid imagination engaged here yet within the style of the times.
Winged Mendelssohnian elfin-macabre is at play among the first two movements:
sprites and spooks revel or drowse as they go about their fairy business.
Eberhard Knobloch’s caressingly relished clarinet solo is at the centre of
a most adroitly paced Ständchen. The brilliant finale has a Walpurgisnacht
air – a nicely contrasting corrective to the other four movements. This work
makes a good companion to the orchestral serenades of Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902)
and Ignaz Brüll (1846-1907) which I have been getting to know through David
Kent-Watson’s Cameo Classics CDs – also well worth seeking out (review in
hand).
I hope that after this substantial orchestral prelude to the Georg Schumann
revival there will be later instalments. These vigorous, dedicated and dramatically
informed performances and fine recordings by Gedschold, his Munich orchestra
and CPO need to lead on to further Schumann revivals. I hope they will take
us to the F minor symphony, the oratorio Ruth, his First World War
tone poem Struggle for an Ideal and an unpublished Violin Concerto.
No masterpieces on this disc but works of the real accomplishment and satisfaction
and, in the case of the mature Serenade, of virile romantic imagination.
Rob Barnett
Works of real accomplishment, satisfaction and virile romantic imagination.
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