Composers › Robert Schumann › Programme note
Symphony No.3 in E flat major, Op.97 (“Rhenish”)
Gerald Larner wrote 2 versions of differing length — choose one below.
Lebhaft (lively)
Scherzo: sehr mässig (very moderate)
Nicht schnell (not fast)
Feirlich (solemn)
Lebhaft (lively)
Although he would have preferred Dresden, which paid better, or Leipzig, which was more prestigious, Schumann was not at all unhappy when he arrived in Düsseldorf to take up his post as musical director in September 1850. Personal and professional problems would arise and multiply later – leading to his attempted suicide by drowning in the Rhine in 1854 – but for the present his new life in the Rhineland was not only congenial but positively stimulating. He was particularly impressed by Cologne Cathedral, which he visited with Clara shortly after their arrival and which, as it happened, was in the midst of preparations for the celebrations associated with the elevation of the Archbishop of Cologne to the Cardinalate. That was the immediate inspiration of the fourth movement of the Symphony in E flat – “a slice of Rhenish life,” he called it – that he began in early November 1850 and completed only five weeks later.
The exhilaration of the situation the composer was in at the time, with his own orchestra and chorus in Düsseldorf and the beauty of the Rhineland around him, is vividly reflected in the Lebhaft first movement. It is an impetuous piece driven for much of its duration by the rhythmic vitality of a main theme that impatiently and consistently contradicts the basic triple-time metre. Impatience prevails until the entry of the comparatively serene second subject on oboes and clarinets but, partly because the new melody is a close variant of the first and partly because its intervention is so brief, the impulse is scarcely relaxed. Schumann sustains that precarious balance, flirting with the lyrical temptation but never having much time for it, throughout the development. The most temptingly melodious episode is dismissed by a dramatic entry of the four horns with a fanfare based on the main theme, which duly makes its definitive re-entry at the fff climax of the tightly wrought construction.
The place for lyrical relaxation is in the next two movements. The title once attached to the Scherzo, “Morning on the Rhine” gives a good indication of its easy-going character. The main theme is a peasant dance, a Ländler, introduced by swaying lower strings and woodwind, which is then offset by a more playful dance-step in crisp staccato articulation. The staccato material continues quietly on the strings as the horns proclaim the contrastingly aristocratic theme of the middle section and then disappears. In a departure from the usual scherzo form Schumann briefly develops the two main themes before recalling the Ländler in its original harmony (but without the staccato material) in the last section of the movement.
The central slow movement is an intimate conversation, rather like the Intermezzo of the Piano Concerto in A minor. Clarinets and bassoons make the opening tender statement to which first violins offer a delicate but by no means dispassionate reply. A warmly expressive new idea on bassoons and violas evokes much the same reply from the violins as before. The three themes are developed and recapitulated but only to leave the delicate last word with the first violins.
Although the Feirlich fourth movement is in a quite different setting, it is not as distinct from the rest of the work as it might at first seem. As befits a piece once described by the composer as “in the style of an accompaniment to a solemn ceremony” it is a celebration of ecclesiastical counterpoint, reflecting not only the evidently awesome experience of Cologne Cathedral in its full glory but also Schumann’s enduring love of J.S. Bach. The theme on which it is based, however, as introduced by horns and trombones in the opening bars, is a much slowed-down variant of the playful staccato material in the second movement. The relationship, unlikely though it is, becomes clear as the tempo increases half-way through.
The final Lebhaft returns to the impulsive manner of the first, but this time without metrical contradictions and without lyrical temptations. The purpose of the movement is to drive irresistibly through to a conclusion appropriate not only to its own construction but to that of the whole symphony. To this end Schumann introduces a variant of the Cathedral theme on unison horns in the middle of the exposition and elevates it in two contrapuntal episodes before a climactic allusion to the opening theme of the work prompts an acceleration into a brilliant coda.
Gerald Larner © 2007
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Symphony No.3”
Lebhaft (lively)
Scherzo: sehr mässig (very moderate)
Nicht schnell (not fast)
Feirlich (solemn)
Lebhaft (lively)
Although he would have preferred Dresden, which paid better, or Leipzig, which was more prestigious, Schumann was not at all unhappy when he arrived in Düsseldorf to take up his post as musical director in September 1850. Personal and professional problems would arise and multiply later - leading to his attempted suicide by drowning in the Rhine in 1854 - but for the present his new life in the Rhineland was not only congenial but positively stimulating. He was particularly impressed by Cologne Cathedral, which he visited with Clara shortly after their arrival and which, as it happened, was in the midst of preparations for the celebrations associated with the elevation of the Archbishop of Cologne to the Cardinalate. That was the immediate inspiration of the fourth movement of the Symphony in E flat - “a slice of Rhenish life,” he called it - that he began in early November 1850 and completed only five weeks later.
The exhilaration of the situation the composer was in at the time, with his own orchestra and chorus in Düsseldorf and the beauty of the Rhineland around him, is vividly reflected in the Lebhaft (lively) first movement. It is an impetuous piece driven for much of its duration by the rhythmic vitality of a main theme that impatiently and consistently contradicts the basic triple-time metre. Impatience prevails until the entry of the comparatively serene second subject on oboes and clarinets but, partly because the new melody is a close variant of the first and partly because its intervention is so brief, the impulse is scarcely relaxed. Schumann sustains that precarious balance, flirting with the lyrical temptation but never having much time for it, throughout the development. The most temptingly melodious episode is dismissed by a dramatic entry of the four horns with a fanfare based on the main theme, which duly makes its definitive re-entry at the fff climax of the tightly wrought construction.
The place for lyrical relaxation is in the next two movements. The title once attached to the Scherzo, “Morning on the Rhine” gives a good indication of its easy-going character. The main theme is a peasant dance, a Ländler, introduced by swaying lower strings and woodwind, which is then offset by a more playful dance-step in crisp staccato articulation. The staccato material continues quietly on the strings as the horns proclaim the contrastingly aristocratic theme of the middle section and then disappears. In a departure from the usual scherzo form Schumann briefly develops the two main themes before recalling the Ländler in its original harmony (but without the staccato material) in the last section of the movement.
The central slow movement is an intimate conversation, rather like the Intermezzo of the Piano Concerto in A minor. Clarinets and bassoons make the opening tender statement to which first violins offer a delicate but by no means dispassionate reply. A warmly expressive new idea on bassoons and violas evokes much the same reply from the violins as before. The three themes are developed and recapitulated but only to leave the delicate last word with the first violins.
Although the Feirlich fourth movement is in a quite different setting, it is not as distinct from the rest of the work as it might at first seem. As befits a piece once described by the composer as “in the style of an accompaniment to a solemn ceremony” it is a celebration of ecclesiastical counterpoint, reflecting not only the evidently awesome experience of Cologne Cathedral in its full glory but also Schumann’s enduring love of J.S. Bach. The theme on which it is based, however, as introduced by horns and trombones in the opening bars, is a much slowed-down variant of the playful staccato material in the second movement. The relationship, unlikely though it is, becomes clear as the tempo increases half-way through.
The final Lebhaft returns to the impulsive manner of the first, but this time without metrical contradictions and without lyrical temptations. The purpose of the movement is to drive irresistibly through to a conclusion appropriate not only to its own construction but to that of the whole symphony. To this end Schumann introduces a variant of the Cathedral theme on unison horns in the middle of the exposition and elevates it in two contrapuntal episodes before a climactic allusion to the opening theme of the work prompts an acceleration into a brilliant coda.
Gerald Larner©
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Symphony No.3”