Schumann "Rhenish" Symphony, 4th mvmt

One of the most amazing homages to the Baroque era, this chorale from Schumann's 3rd Symphony is one of my all-time favorites. Performed here with Kurt Masur and the NY Philharmonic, live in 1995.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Schumann
• Rhenish
• brass
• chorale
• baroque
• Masur
• new
• york
• philarmonic

[medpiano]

The opening brass chorale, the moving counterpoint--are you kidding me? Of course the apoggiaturas are harmonically thicker than that of baroque chorales, but there are echoes of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion here, others.

[dfreak10]

I cant tell you how many times I've listened to the first 40 seconds of this symphony. I am a trombone player and this just motivates me even more! Joseph Alessi is my Idol!

[tromdude]

@konrad4343 that was trombones playing that part, not horns

[iseefurtherthanyou]

@dwlindeman haha, calm down there, it's a youtube video.

[dwlindeman]

NB: And Kurt Masur, with an 's', of course

[dwlindeman]

NB: Robert Schumann's 3rd Symphony, that is; mea culpa (re: previous post by DWLindeman). That he obviously invokes chorale, and the fugue, albeit the latter not entirely, is part of his retrospective and forward-looking strategy, integrative and revolutionary simultaniously. Mazur has not fallen into the trap of taking Schumann's retrospective references literally, and thereby, he fulfills the real intentions of his (Schumann's) endeavor here, revealing the revolutionary dynamic he intended.

[dwlindeman]

This is a profound, and very important interpretation of this movement of Schumann's 4th Symphony. Mazur has chosen to juxtapose Schuman's Romantic melodic line, with the internal harmonic, and, melodic structures, which support it. There is a dynamic play between an obviously melodic motif, and sub-motifs that themselves function melodically. This is a major contributionto the interpretation of this part of Schumann's oeuvre, that reveals him as the avant-garde composer he truly is

[kingsott]

I read somewhere that Schumann (who was then living in Dusseldorf) was present at the enthronement of Johannes von Geissel as Cardinal-Archbishop of Koln, in 1850. This event undoubtedly gave a strong impetus to the completion of the cathedral to the original scheme of the mid-13c ( which had been preserved on scribed board). Schumann, I feel, was harking back to pre-Reformation days, notwithstanding the actual scoring.

[fogofwar2]

for me, I believe this movement impacts because it invokes human's interplay between sadness and triumph

[tromdude]

@TheOtakuAmp im a bone player as well, and yes Joe is the bomb!

[TheOtakuAmp]

@tromdude No sweat man, I'm a bass trombone player and, of course, love this piece. They had to show Joe. :-)

[tromdude]

@TheOtakuAmp yeah you're right sorry. it's also bassoons too, but it still is a famous trombone excerpt

[TheOtakuAmp]

@tromdude It's both horns and trombones.