Walter’s Double Dose of a Schumann Symphony

1919 cover of a score for The Bartered Bride (from a Wikipedia Web page, public domain)

It would probably be fair to say that the account of Robert Schumann in the Warner Classics box set of performances by conductor Bruno Walter is even “skimpier” than its single-CD treatment of Franz Schubert. Once again, there is only one CD, which begins and concludes with two different performance of the same composition, the composer’s Opus 120 (fourth) symphony in D minor. The earlier of the performances, recorded in 1928, is performed by the Mozart Festival Orchestra, while the second, recorded a little less than ten years later, saw Walter on the podium for the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). These two versions are separated by another LSO performance, the overture to Bedřich Smetana’s comic opera, The Bartered Bride (whose overture is much better known than the opera itself).

Some readers may recall that the Schumann symphony was on the program for the first performance in Davies Symphony Hall for this season’s San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert series. My familiarity with the music goes all the way back to my student days, and I am pretty sure it was performed by the student orchestra of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nevertheless, there was little about the two recordings on Walter’s CD that would leave me to take compare-and-contrast approach to the different performances. On the other hand, I appreciated the idea of separating the two versions with the vigorous account of Smetana’s overture. Nevertheless, the prospect of back-to-back listening to the same Schumann symphony has never particularly appealed to me!