Karajan performs Schumann 4

This very well might be the best performance of Schumann 4 I've ever heard. Schumann Symphonies do not play themselves. The definitive bipolar composer is at his most obsessive in the symphonies, and in most hands his unending repetitions can sound incredibly boring. The most famous recording of Schumann 4 is of Karajan's predecessor at the Berlin Philharmonic: Wilhelm Furtwangler. But the truth is that Furtwangler did not 'get' Schumann or quite a bit other pre-Wagner music. He gets the warm German sound as well as anybody does, but you can't take these incredibly balanced forms that come from Haydn and Mozart (but without the impeccable construction) and apply the same slow, elastic phrasing that makes great performances of Wagner and Bruckner. The great secret of a lot of early Romantic music is that the lighter and more nimble the sound, the heavier the music sounds to the audience. Romantic aims with classical means.


Furtwangler: not bad, just a dull at times.