Robin Ticciati & SCO - Schumann: The Symphonies - BBC Music Magazine

Terry Williams grabs his oars, pushes his boat out and heads downstream as he admires the finest recordings of Schumann's River Rhine-inspired masterpiece

There's a lot to be said for deploying smaller orchestral forces in the four Schumann symphonies. The frontrunners in an ever-widening field in this respect are Robin Ticciati's Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and Yannick Nezet-Seguin's Chamber Orchestra of Europe, who both give Schumann's textures a thorough spring clean. Fleet-footed and fresh, both would make an ideal entry point for first-time buyers and also for those with lingering doubts about Schumann the symphonist, but forced to choose I'd opt for Ticciati, whose exhilarating Rhenish has all the makings of a modern classic. The opening movement has 'that swing', and the SCO's fabulous playing, especially its winds, is sheer delight, with superb timpani as well. Linn Records lets us hear it all in state-of-the-art SACD sound.