Northern Sinfonia’s main theme of the 2012-13 season is the ‘Romantic Symphony’, featuring the complete cycles of Brahms and Schumann symphonies. Here, music director Thomas Zehetmair provides a glimpse into the performance history of the symphonies and what links them.

Why a cycle with all symphonies by Brahms and Schumann? This question is more than redundant - the quality of every note of these pieces deeply touched listeners and challenged musicians even at the very first performances.
 
We know in detail from a contemporary witness that those early interpretations were incredibly bold in terms of tempi and phrasing - in contrast to most of today's performances. Fortunately this chronicler made precise descriptions of performances of Brahms symphonies from the time that the composer attended personally and expressed his enthusiasm.
 
However only a few years after Brahms's death everything changed for the worse: our chronicler complains bitterly about performances typified by too strict tempi and an annoying lack of heavenly floating 'freedom'. Well, fortunately for us he offered detailed performance alternatives: away with an indefinable ‘cloud’ of sound and instead a most expressive and urgent speech! I could not help but be influenced and overwhelmed by his report, since the concept is enormously strong and convincing!
 
Incidentally, it took Brahms quite a while until he considered his First Symphony ready to be performed - altogether 20 years from the first sketches to the finished work.
 
This is quite a different matter with Schumann: he wrote the essence of the Spring Symphony in just four days - in an ecstatic and euphoric state of mind, probably the happiest time of his life. He demands fast tempi, suggesting an intense drama. Of course, this is just one side of the story: the poetry in his music is incredible. In every note you can hear the echo of the poem by Adolf Böttger, which inspired Schumann for the opening of the symphony:
 
‘O wende, wende deinen Lauf
Im Tale blüht der Frühling auf’
 
[‘O turn, O turn and change your course— In the valley spring blooms forth!’]
 
A strong bond seems to hold the two cycles together - not only by the deep mutual appreciation between Schumann and his young companion Brahms, but also because of an interesting coincidence:
 
The keys of the four Brahms Symphonies are C minor, D major, F major, E minor, which is literally the famous last movement theme of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. Let us look at Schumann's Symphonies: B flat major, C major, E-flat major, D minor - the same theme transposed! In Schumann's case it seems completely unintended since he wrote his ‘Fourth’ Symphony before the second - but who knows?
 
Although the two cycles are written about a generation apart - Brahms finished his First Symphony 20 years after Schumann's death - there are deep connections as well as distinctive differences. The Northern Sinfonia and I are greatly looking forward to performing this amazing combination over the next few months, in what will be an enlightening experience for both audiences and players!

Northern Sinfonia’s season opens on September 16 and the first concert in the 'Romantic Symphony' series is on Friday September 28.