Schumann’s Spring Symphony from the Leipzig Gewandhaus

Elizabeth Alker showcases the best performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

There is a wide-reaching German Romantic feel to this week’s programmes. Throughout the week, we’ll be hearing works composed in Leipzig by the many composers who visited the Robert and Clara Schumann home around the time of their marriage in the 1840s (the house still exists today as a school and a museum). Today, we kick things off with Robert Schumann himself and a performance of his Spring Symphony, written in the home.

Also this week, we’ll hear exclusive live performances from this year’s Norfolk and Norwich Festival by current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, and we will also be dipping in to a brand new release by another New Generation Artist, pianist Lukas Sternarth, starting today with moments from Franz Liszt’s Italian Book from his ‘Years of Pilgrimage’.

Before that, the programme begins with a live concert from London’s Wigmore Hall given by Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih of music from the same period.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London.
Presented by Petroc Trelawny

William Sterndale Bennett
Sonata Duo for cello and piano

Robert Schumann (arr Steven Isserlis)
Studies for Pedal Piano - 6 pieces in canonic form, (No 4)

Robert Schumann (arr Steven Isserlis)
Sängers Trost

Felix Mendelssohn
Cello Sonata No 2 in D major

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Robert Schumann
Symphony No 1, ‘Spring’
Suzhou Symphony Orchestra
Zhongshan Xu (conductor)

Gustav Mahler
Movement in A minor for Piano Quartet
Berniya Hamie (piano)
Members of Kleio Quartet

Franz Liszt
1. Sposalizio
2. Il Penseroso
3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
(Book 2 - Italy, Years of Pilgrimage)
Lukas Sternath (piano)

Nicolò Paganini
Caprice No 10 in G minor
Liviu Prunaru (violin)

Robert Schumann
Paradise and the Peri, Part 1
Lenneke Ruiten (soprano (Peri))
Hanna Herfurtner (soprano)
Ulrike Schneider (alto)
Manuel Günther (tenor)
Tobias Berndt (baritone)
MDR Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies (conductor)