Daniel Barenboim
's 80th birthday in 2022 was attended by various reissues of his work, great and small, but listeners have shown a commendable ability to see through the marketing by putting this new set of
Schumann
symphonies, recorded live in 2021, on classical best-seller lists. This is the third time
Barenboim
has recorded the
symphonies, and while this reading with his well-honed
Staatskapelle Berlin
is not cut from fundamentally different cloth than the earlier ones, it is delicate to a perhaps unprecedented degree.
, maybe more than any other conductor, realizes that lightness is the key to these works, as much as in
's songs, and that the crucial small details emerge if they are given room to do so. Each symphony is thought out as an independent unit. Consider the
Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38
, where
offers an end-heavy reading and makes a powerful case for it. The lightness of the first two movements is marvelous. In the
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97 ("Rhenish")
,
makes clear the immense influence this work had on the second half of the 19th century with its fusion of sonata form and programmatic imagery; his reading flows (so to speak) just beautifully.
Deutsche Grammophon
's live sound is another draw in a
set for the ages. Bravo, Maestro! ~ James Manheim