Schumann - Symphonies 3 & 4 (reorch. Mahler) | Naxos 8574430

Schumann - Symphonies 3 & 4 (reorch. Mahler)

£12.30

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Label: Naxos

Cat No: 8574430

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 27th January 2023

Contents

About

Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony was initially conceived not long after the success of the First, but the dramatic original single-movement version confused audiences, and substantial revisions resulted in the eloquent masterpiece we hear today. This and the Third Symphony owe a great deal to Beethoven, with the ‘Rhenish’ sharing much of the joy and effervescence of the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. Gustav Mahler’s subtle re-orchestrations were made in the light of instrumental innovations and the increase in size of the symphony orchestra towards the beginning of the 20th century, making them ideal for performance today.

This release completes our edition of Schumann’s symphonies re-orchestrated by Mahler, with volume 1 appearing in October 2022 (8574429). Mahler’s gentle revisions provide models of tasteful modification that are suited to the larger orchestras of today, but there are surprisingly few recordings of these Mahler re-orchestrations available.

Marin Alsop is chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which she leads at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and on recordings, broadcasts and tours. Alsop is also the music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony and founded the orchestra’s OrchKids education programme. In 2020 she was appointed music director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and is also the conductor of honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP). The first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop received the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award and was the first woman to conduct the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms.

Conductor Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene whose many Naxos recordings include a complete cycle of Brahms’s symphonies declared ‘extremely powerful, magnificently played, and stunningly recorded’ by Fanfare. Her 8-disc set of the orchestral music of her mentor Leonard Bernstein (8508018), was considered by ClassicsToday.com to present ‘performances as fine as Bernstein’s own, and sometimes even better’.

An ensemble of international renown, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is a paragon of Viennese orchestral tradition. It has recorded widely for the OehmsClassics and Capriccio labels, and its Naxos releases include an ‘inspiring and enjoyable’ (BBC Music Magazine) recording of Florence Price’s Third Symphony (8559897) and, also with Marin Alsop, Henze’s Nachtstücke und Arien (8574181) in performances that are ‘assured and lyrical’ (MusicWeb International).

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