Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Robert Schumann described the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 28, “Spring,” as a beautiful, happy evening. The subtitle of the 1st Symphony says it all: With its bright and optimistic character, it is a homage to the springtime. In this video, the cheerful orchestral piece is played by the Dresden Festival Orchestra under the direction of Ivor Bolton. The concert took place in 2019 at the Kulturpalast Dresden.
(00:00) 1. Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace
(12:04) II. Larghetto
(19:04) III. Scherzo. Molto vivace
(25:16) IV. Allegro animato e grazioso
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) said of his first Symphony that it was "born in a fiery hour." He came up with it over just four days in January of 1841, completing it in the following three weeks. The premiere took place on March 31 of that same year, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 – 1847) at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. The Spring Symphony title came from Schumann himself, who had originally even given the individual symphonic movements figurative titles; The Beginning of Spring, Evening, Merry Playmates, and Spring in Full Bloom. Shortly before going to press, however, Schumann redacted the movement titles to prevent the Symphony from being classified program music. The collective title ‘Spring Symphony’ alone was retained.
It was, after all, a poem on spring by the German poet Adolf Böttger (1815 – 1870) that had inspired the composer to write his Symphony on that theme in the first place. Musically, Schumann picked up from Franz Schubert’s (1797 – 1828) Symphony No. 9 in C major – the ‘Great' – the score of which Schumann had seen during a 1839 trip to Vienna. It is above all the solemn call of the horns and trumpets at the beginning of the Spring Symphony that recalls Schubert's Great Symphony.
Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770 – 1827) influence, conversely, can be seen in the recurring themes that link the individual movements together. But while Beethoven conceives a thematic idea and develops it purposefully throughout the subsequent movements, however, the movements of Schumann’s Spring Symphony are rather playfully interwoven. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 celebrates spring with a lightness that the Romantic composer never achieved again.
Text: Rita Kass
© 2019 Accentus Music
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Robert Schumann described the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 28, “Spring,” as a beautiful, happy evening. The subtitle of the 1st Symphony says it all: With its bright and optimistic character, it is a homage to the springtime. In this video, the cheerful orchestral piece is played by the Dresden Festival Orchestra under the direction of Ivor Bolton. The concert took place in 2019 at the Kulturpalast Dresden.
(00:00) 1. Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace
(12:04) II. Larghetto
(19:04) III. Scherzo. Molto vivace
(25:16) IV. Allegro animato e grazioso
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) said of his first Symphony that it was "born in a fiery hour." He came up with it over just four days in January of 1841, completing it in the following three weeks. The premiere took place on March 31 of that same year, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 – 1847) at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. The Spring Symphony title came from Schumann himself, who had originally even given the individual symphonic movements figurative titles; The Beginning of Spring, Evening, Merry Playmates, and Spring in Full Bloom. Shortly before going to press, however, Schumann redacted the movement titles to prevent the Symphony from being classified program music. The collective title ‘Spring Symphony’ alone was retained.
It was, after all, a poem on spring by the German poet Adolf Böttger (1815 – 1870) that had inspired the composer to write his Symphony on that theme in the first place. Musically, Schumann picked up from Franz Schubert’s (1797 – 1828) Symphony No. 9 in C major – the ‘Great' – the score of which Schumann had seen during a 1839 trip to Vienna. It is above all the solemn call of the horns and trumpets at the beginning of the Spring Symphony that recalls Schubert's Great Symphony.
Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770 – 1827) influence, conversely, can be seen in the recurring themes that link the individual movements together. But while Beethoven conceives a thematic idea and develops it purposefully throughout the subsequent movements, however, the movements of Schumann’s Spring Symphony are rather playfully interwoven. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 celebrates spring with a lightness that the Romantic composer never achieved again.
Text: Rita Kass
© 2019 Accentus Music
Find more symphonies here:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBXvpOWNmQ1AUBPQeyNanpxY
Check out more music from the Romantic period in our playlist ROMANTIC MUSIC:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBUCHNKKxIIM88sntDk1TVih
Watch more music from Robert Schumann here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBVVGSZy9tzxzigD5gD0ZSz5
And watch more concerts in YOUR PERSONAL CONCERT HALL:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBV5A14dyRWy1KSkwcG8LEey
Subscribe to DW Classical Music:
youtube.com/dwclassicalmusic
#romanticmusic #schumann #symphony
