Parlando Breakdown #5: Schumann Symphony No. 2

Schumann Symphony No. 2, written in 1846, performed by Daniel Harding and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Robert Schumann faced a steep challenge when writing his symphonies. The most recent major symphony written by a German composer, was this one.

Yes, Beethoven 9. The shadow of Beethoven’s symphonies, particularly his 9th, stretched over all German composers in the mid 19th Century. Beethoven dominated the conversation around German classical music the way Michael Jordan dominates the conversation about the NBA. He left an incomparable impact. Every new German composer was viewed through the lens of how they compared to Beethoven. For Robert Schumann, among others, this provided a great deal of anxiety. Schumann was a fierce Beethoven devotee and wanted to be the steward of his legacy. For that to be true, Schumann had to write a triumph of a symphony. It’s here in his second symphony that he most explicitly stakes his claim to Beethoven’s symphonic legacy.

The music is bright and exuberant — truly building towards that triumphant conclusion that German listeners expected in the finale of a symphony. After the music cuts out, this gorgeous lyric theme emerges.

This music actually isn’t by Schumann: it’s by, you guessed it, Beethoven! Schumann quotes the last song from Beethoven’s song cycle, “An die ferne Geliebte,” or “to the distant beloved.” This is the first “song cycle” as we know it today, a set of individual songs that together make a single musical entity. (Essentially what an album or LP is today) Schumann loved this format — he wrote four song cycles, and he was a particular admirer of the last song from this cycle. Here’s a recording of this song, performed by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Jörg Demus.

Accept, then, these songs

I sang for you, beloved;

Sing them again at evening

To the lute’s sweet sound!

The speaker asks the “distant beloved” to “accept these songs,” and this quotation isn’t accidental. Schumann wanted everyone to be certain that he saw himself and Beethoven as part of the same lineage, even offering his symphony as tribute. “Accept then, this song I sing for you.” As the symphony flies towards the finish, Schumann takes this Beethoven theme and morphs it into a triumphant finale.

This finale is both an homage and a claim to Beethoven’s legacy. It’s an unbelievable piece of music on it’s own, but in the context of Beethoven’s symphonic legacy it perfectly captures the anxiety and aspirations of the mid 19th century German symphony. I think the Schumann symphonies deserve more love than they get, so take a break from Beethoven today — listen to Schumann.