The Schumann Encounter: Robert's Rescue

Available on DVD from www.digitalclassicsdvd.co.uk and all major retailers.

Starring: SIR ROGER NORRINGTON
SIMON CALLOW
CAMERATA ACADEMICA SALZBURG
PETER ARP
SABINE KIND

Throughout his adult life, composer Robert Schumann (1810-56) struggled against a fear of mental disintegration. His Symphony No. 2 in C major Op. 61 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown and contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited Florestan, and the brooding, poetic Eusebius, came into conflict in his music, with its combination of power and intimate lyricism. Focusing on the Second Symphony, this film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatised sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composers complex and fractured genius.

The Schumann Encounter finds Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg to rehearse and perform the Symphony No. 2 with the Camerata Academica, one of Europes leading chamber orchestras. Snatching some rest before the evenings concert with the Camerata Academica, he is aware of an argument in progress in the adjoining hotel room. He falls asleep only to awake in another reality, transformed into Master Raro the mediator between Florestan and Eusebius (both played by Sir Simon Callow (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love) who are at odds over the composition of the Second Symphony.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• SIR
• ROGER
• NORRINGTON
• SIMON
• CALLOW
• CAMERATA
• ACADEMICA
• SALZBURG
• PETER
• ARP
• Robert
• Schumann
• symphony
• orchestra
• classical
• music
• concert