Theodor Adorno, a pupil of Berg, and better known as a philosophical writer on music than a composer, made these orchestrations of six of the piano pieces from Schumann's Album for the Young in 1941. You may be struck, especially in 'Knecht Ruprecht', by their occasional kinship to Schoenberg's orchestration of the Brahms First Piano Quartet - a bass clarinet in the Schumann orchestra? Never! And flutter-tonguing woodwinds? Schumann wouldn't have known what the term meant, let alone how it sounded! Yet, it's all tactfully and imaginatively done with an ear on the intimacy and scale of the piano originals. Marginally more familiar are the three movements from Carnaval (they've been recorded once or twice) which are all that has survived of a complete orchestration Ravel made of it for choreographer Nijinsky in 1914. And Ravel is perhaps a little more aware of the scope of Schumann's orchestral sound world than Adorno, even if you hardly feel the loss of Ravel's orchestration of the other movements has deprived the world of something of the stature of his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
The main fare on this new disc is the Second Symphony. A fascinating account, not least because it exposes the score in a manner you would expect from a period-instrument performance. This could have something to do with the occasionally flimsy Royal Philharmonic strings allowing the woodwinds and brass to be more of a feature (to my ears, it sounds as if the strings have been reduced for the occasion) ; and also something to do with the microphones being fairly close-in (or so it seems). Joeres himself is an exciting Schumann conductor - occasionally excitable as well, which isn't such a good thing for the longer view. And he goes in for extremes: after one of the slowest performances of the Adagio on record, the finale fairly breezes along.
Taken as a whole, an attractive proposition, where the shortcomings (at times, the strings only just get by, especially in the Symphony's Scherzo) are outweighed by the bright-toned enthusiasm. The sound is open and lively.'