Symphony No. 2 in C Major

Schumann may be credited with the discovery in 1838 of the manuscript of Schubert’s Great C major Symphony No. 9 He immediately sent the score to Mendelssohn, who subsequently conducted its premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In December 1845, Schumann heard the work again and, in a characteristic blaze of inspiration, drafted his own symphony in the same key. He spent much of this period, however, suffering a profound and debilitating depression—an early symptom of the malaise that would lead to his suicide attempt a decade later—and as a result the orchestration of the work occupied him for much of 1846. Schumann acknowledged that it was composed during “a dark time”, but his Symphony No. 2 is a work of almost unrelenting vitality and positivity. Mendelssohn was again the conductor at its premiere at the Gewandhaus that November. Louring brass tattoos dominate the slow introduction and lead into a sinewy, energetic first movement built from a distinctive, nervy rhythmic motif. The irresistibly perky “Scherzo” alternates with a pair of contrasting trio sections and builds towards a climactic recall of the brass motif from the opening of the symphony. The clouds that gather over the minor-key slow movement are soon dispelled before an exultant finale, in which a determined march gives way to an ecstatic meditation upon a surging chorale melody, once again bedecked with the opening’s brass figures to bring the symphony to a triumphant conclusion.