Schumann: Symphonies Nos 2 & 4

Album of the Week
‘Having been such a fan of Gardiner’s Mendelssohn recordings with the LSO, I had extremely high hopes for these Schumann symphonies, and so far my expectations have not just been met but easily surpassed.’
Presto Classical

Album of the Week
‘This CD has addictive potential.’
Saarländischer Rundfunk

5 STARS
‘The Fourth Symphony is played in the 1841 version. Gardiner’s reading is lively and agile, slender and full of tension…The conductor also elicits entirely new aspects from the 2nd Symphony in D major.’
Pizzicato

4 STARS
‘Lean and lithe are two descriptions of John Eliot Gardiner’s approach to Robert Schumann’s music. Add in atmospheric and dramatic for the Overture to Genoveva (an opera), surging forward but with enough room for lyricism and breathing space...’
Classical Source

‘The LSO respond with elan to the bracing textures, confounding the cliché that Schumann “couldn’t orchestrate”. Gardiner chooses the 1841 version of the D minor work, No 4, which the LSO play as if discovering it anew.’
The Sunday Times

‘It’s clear straight away that the clarity of Gardiner’s approach, the airiness and rhythmic vitality of the playing pretty much negates the common criticisms of Schumann’s orchestration…Crisp, authoritative and joyful playing from the London Symphony Orchestra.’
BBC Radio 3 - Record Review