Schumann: Symphonies nos. 3 & 4

Reflection of Rhenish good cheer: It was the view of Cologne Cathedral that inspired him to write his Third Symphony, said Robert Schumann. Not that the “Rhenish” is programme music. The move from Dresden to the Rhineland had put the composer in a positively euphoric mood; and it is that mood that pervades this lively and cheerful symphony. The symphony Schumann wrote earlier, but completely revised for performance as his Fourth, resembles a great Romantic orchestral fantasia with its continuous flow of music from one movement to the next.