Welcome to ‘Dodd’s Discoveries’, a review series from NativeDSD Senior Music Reviewer Bill Dodd. This series focuses on Bill’s latest selections, with new reviews regularly. And the best part… the albums featured in the most current review will be available at a reduced price! Click the button below to see all of Dodd’s Discoveries and to find the current album(s) on sale.
![Schumann Symphonies [Double Album]](https://media.nativedsd.com/storage/nativedsd.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/05092517/PTC5186989-300x300.jpg "PTC5186989.jpg")
Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and music critic. He was born in 1810 and died in 1856 after a lengthy battle with illness and depression. His approaches to thematic contrast, emotional narrative expression, and architectural innovation set precedents that later Romantics, like Brahms and Mahler, would expand upon.
My first exposure to Schumann’s orchestral work was a recording of his Fourth Symphony by Josef Krips with the LSO. It’s a fine performance.
Native DSD has three complete sets of Schumann’s 4 Symphonies: Gardniner with the LSO, Foster with the Czech Philharmonic, and this one: Marek Janowski with the Dresdner Philharmonie. All are well performed by superb musicians, but it’s the Janowski that is my personal favorite. Janowski has attention to structure and detail, but with a with a spring in his step. Structure and emotion, lovingly done!
Symphony No. 1 was written in 1841 and inspired by the arrival of Spring.
Symphony No. 2 was completed in 1846 and reflects Schumann’s struggles with illness and depression– but with a triumphant and uplifting conclusion.
Symphony No. 3 was inspired by Schumann’s travels along the Rhine.
Symphony No. 4, with movements flowing seamlessly into one another. has a dark, dramatic character and is considered one of Schumann’s most innovative orchestral works.
If you’ve had trouble warming up to Schumann, this set of the 4 Symphonies just might do it for you. Audio quality is unbeatable, with 2 channel and multi-channel versions, and up to DSD 512 resolution available.
