Symphony No. 4

Description

Robert Schumann is held in high esteem as one of the most important composers after Beethoven. He was thoroughly devoted to the cause of creating beautiful music.

Schumann graduated from the University of Leipsic with a Degree in Law, to please his mother. However, his heart was in the world of music.

He studied piano with “Papa” Wieck, whose daughter Klara was a fine pianist and composer. Klara and Robert became enamored of each other, and married in the autumn of 1840.

The marriage stirred a new and significant creative impulse in Robert, and the Fourth Symphony, composed in 1841, was a birthday gift for Klara. Being the perfectionist he was, Schumann refused to permit publication until ten years later, after he had made extensive revisions to the work.

The Fourth Symphony is a lyric poem for orchestra, more poetic in content than Schumann’s prior symphonies. The theme of the introduction to the Finale asserts itself in a passage of surprising grandeur.

Schumann’s versatility and agile romantic lyrical themes in the strings and woodwinds are contrasted by powerfully majestic themes for the full orchestra. The movement is deeply poetic, expressing varying moods: tenderness, passion, intensity and drama.

Published by: Dorabet Music Company