Some of the most informative and rewarding moments with the Colorado Symphony are its semi-regular festivals devoted to a composer, such as an ambitious Brahms tribute in January 2005, or a theme.
This weekend, under the leadership of conductor laureate Marin Alsop, the orchestra is taking on Robert Schumann’s four symphonies, which, as odd as it might sound, can legitimately be called under-appreciated.
During an onstage tutorial Friday evening, she and Richard Kogan, a pianist, psychiatrist and Schumann expert, spoke at length about the composer and his bipolar disorder.
The condition led to a suicide attempt in 1854 and two subsequent years in a mental institution, where Schumann died.
Kogan made the point that an abnormal number of composers have suffered from mental illness, citing Beethoven among others.
“You don’t have to be mentally ill to write a musical masterpiece, but it certainly helps,” he said.
Countering some of the experts who have faulted Schumann as a symphonist, Alsop called him nothing less than “the heir to Beethoven” and an essential influence on Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
It is a bold claim, but she gamely defended her assertions by dissecting, section by section, the evening’s centerpiece, the Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38, “Spring,” showing, among other things, the strong flavor of Beethoven in the first movement.
When Alsop and the orchestra returned on the second half, they let the music speak for itself, offering a vital, energetic version of this appealing work.
The opening build-up was adroitly calibrated — not too much too soon. The crackling tempos, one passage snapping into the next, infused the first movement overall with an exhilarating forward thrust.
The springtime feeling evoked in the piece’s title was especially evident in the fourth and final movement. It took on a suitably perky, high-spirited feel in this interpretation, with doses of punch as needed, and culminated in a turbocharged race to the finish line.
The symphony’s Schumann festival will conclude at 2:30 p.m. today with an examination of the composer’s Symphonies No. 3 and 4.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
