Schumann: Manfred Overture, Op. 115

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Decca recorded a number of albums with some of its key conductors of Overtures. Many of these were singled out by the press for their terrific sound quality (the fabled ‘Decca Sound’) and for their often adventurous programming. Some of them also included entr’actes and intermezzi. Prized as collectors’ items, many of the original LPs exchange hands at high prices. And most of these reissues, in Decca Eloquence’s ‘Romantic Overtures’ series appear in CD, in part or whole, for the first time.

Romantic Overtures – Volume 3 features a conductor who recorded for Decca over a span of 36 years, from the 78 / early LP era (1949) to 1985: Karl Münchinger. Best known for his recordings from the Baroque and Classical eras, made mostly with ‘his’ Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, he also recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic and made just one recording – of Schumann’s Manfred and Gluck’s Alceste Overtures – with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (in 1954). Appearing on CD for the first time, they round off a 2CD set that includes, also for the first time on CD, Münchinger’s recording of Beethoven Overtures, as well as a remarkable recording ‘Romantic Overtures’ of music by Weber, Schumann, Schubert, Cherubini and Mendelssohn. Also included is Schubert’s Zauberharfe overture which appeared on Münchinger’s famous disc of the incidental music for Rosamunde.

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world and the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann. This 2-CD set brings together all of Ansermet’s Schumann recordings for Decca.

Ansermet’s Schumann is generally unforced and relaxed, with all but the Piano and Cello Concertos making their first international appearance on CD. In the Piano Concerto – a live radio broadcast recording with Lipatti, newly remastered for this release – Lipatti seems to drive the orchestra to new levels of excitement.

As with many of the (relatively few) concertante works Ansermet recorded, the soloists are drawn from the orchestra – as is the case with Edmund Leloir, principal horn of the OSR from 1952-77, for the Adagio and Allegro, originally for horn and piano and, for this recording, orchestrated by Ansermet. Maurice Gendron, soloist in the Cello Concerto, was one of Jacqueline du Pré’s teachers. The Schumann concerto was one of his specialties; he frequently played it when he was invited to appear with orchestras.

“Gendron's performance is instinct with poetry, and, with Ansermet, he achieves a lucidity of expression which is very taking … artistic integrity and understanding which is utterly remarkable” Gramophone

[Schumann's' Symphony No 1] “…a wonderfully light and graceful performance” Gramophone

[Lipatti's Schumann] “…a deeply moving performance. Lipatti plays con amore, almost as if aware the opportunity might never come again” Gramophone

The present disc is the fourth in BIS’ Opening Doors series and at the same time the closing disc of a ‘series within a series’ – a triptych featuring Schumann’s complete symphonies.

Zubin Mehta has had a long association with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducting them for his first ever recording for Decca (Bruckner's Ninth Symphony) and returning often to conduct them both in their home city and on tour. He conducts their 2007 New Year's Concert, for example. Collected here for the first time are his complete Decca recordings of Schumann - the four symphonies as well as two of the overtures, all played with immense verve and with a gloriously burnished sound from the Vienna Philharmonic.

In the year of Abbado’s 80th birthday (26. June), this album celebrates a true legend of the world of classical music.

Claudio Abbado’s interpretation of the Second Symphony is his first recording of a Schumann symphony for DG. The noble “Genoveva” and stirring “Manfred” overtures are exalted additions to this album.

About his Second as performed at the Lucerne Easter Festival, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung extolled Abbado’s reading as of “the purest beauty”, while Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel found Abbado’s way with the symphony “liberating”.

In the year commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, we are proud to present a unique coupling of the composer's Second and Fourth Symphonies and Manfred Overture, recorded between 1940 and 1946 and played by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini and Bruno Walter. This important issue complements each conductor admirably: Toscanini never recorded the Fourth Symphony of Schumann and Walter never recorded the Second Symphony. The disc is completed by a stunning performance under Toscanini of the Manfred Overture. The performances shed new light on the approaches to Schumann's music by two of the greatest conductors of the 20th-century and the NBC mono broadcast sound has been dramatically improved.