With ears almost beleaguered by a recent glut of symphonic Schumann, I turned to Norrington's new disc looking for fresh insights. I was not disappointed. Schumann's metronome markings are boldly printed on the liner-notes and case back, and, with one exception, are adhered to without the pulse sounding in any way metronomic. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that most of the 'old school' apparently take the middle movements of both symphonies too slowly, and until someone discovers that Schumann's metronome markings were not in fact Schumann's, supporters of the 'old school' will have to fall back on the premise, passionately espoused by the late Leonard Bernstein that a composer's instructions should be obeyed according to how you feel them.
Certainly, Norrington forces you to ponder whether Sawallisch's readings (on mid-price EMI) can now properly be described as having a ''sense of classical poise'' (1990 Good CD Guide) when Sawallisch takes, say, the Scherzo of the Rhenish at crotchet=75 and Schumann marked it crotchet=100. In fact, both tempos work here: Norrington with the more dancing gait and joyful horns in the coda, Sawallisch with more breadth for the trio's legendary echoes. The pattern holds for the two ensuing movements and the contrast is nowhere more marked than in the fourth movement's cathedral polyphony: Sawallisch offers a spectator in rapt contemplation of a distant, solemn ritual; at a much faster tempo, Norrington's experience is almost physically involving, and how marvellously he colours the two summonses near the end of the piece—the first sonorously intoned with woodwind voices prominent, the second in a blaze of brass, the difference accurately, yet imaginatively, reflecting the relative markings of forte and fortissimo.
This scrupulous attention to dynamics brings many surprises, and the occasional disappointment. The Third Symphony's first movement development opens with a thrusting triple forte tutti, but when the main theme returns (at 4'30'' and again at 5'05'') the precisely registered single forte sounds a little mean of spirit. Obviously Norrington is, very correctly, preserving the decibels for the theme's fff reappearance in the recapitulation (at 6'30''), but, to my ears the contrast is made with excessive zeal and renders the development rather uneventful. Speaking of contrasts, there are odd phrases where the difference between staccato and non-staccato seems unusually pointed and although the first theme of the finale of the Rhenish is marked dolce, I've not heard it 'sung' as smoothly as this. Interestingly, it is Sawallisch who takes this movement at the metronome marking, exploiting the contrast between the cathedral interior where time changes to space, and the finale's light of common day. Norrington is below the marking here, and the playing is never less than alert and lively, but it is Sawallisch who offers the more joyful release. Norrington's horns are, again, quite magnificent in the coda, though it's a pity that the trumpets, who should surely match them exactly in the concluding bars, are, at this point, relatively weak.
The surprises in the Fourth Symphony are the 'correct' tempos for the Romanze and the finale's introductory langsam. The former's plaintive oboe and cello melody becomes a dance, and how naturally it flows at this speed. The balance between the two soloists is effortlessly achieved. The finale's slow opening, taken at crotchet=52, has Norrington (like Klemperer in his recently reissued Fourth on EMI) completely avoiding Karajan's and Furtwangler's (both DG) expansive stances. The crescendo may be less gradual, but it is as powerfully graduated. Norrington's long fermatas immediately before, and during the first movement's development may cause unease, but my only serious complaint about this Fourth has nothing to do with performers or recording team: CD mastering engineers often forget that this symphony is continuous, but this is an extreme example, with five and six second lapses before the second and third movements. A shame, when so much care has obviously been taken by the artists to respect the composer's wishes. Clive Brown's excellent notes accompanying this CD actually state that Schumann's instructions were for the Symphony by played without a break between movements.
A word about the sound: some sophisticated editing between takes near the start of the Rhenish highlights the use of either a different microphone set up, or equalization, as the sound occasionally acquires a nasal or 'cupped-hands' quality. In general, the sound is close, bright, open and as clear as a bell. I remain unconvinced that period instruments do make for a greater degree of transparency in Schumann's scoring: the revelations of texture in both these symphonies is more a matter of the use of a smaller body of strings than usual, with separated violin desks and some very skilful engineering. But revelations there are, none the less, and this fascinating disc should certainly be heard.'