Robin Ticciati & SCO - Schumann: The Symphonies - The Sunday Times

Classical CD of the Week 

Two fine cycles of Schumann's four symphonies - from Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (DG), and an in-house set from Simon Rattle's Berliner Philharmoniker - have already appeared this year, but Ticciati's Scottish Chamber Orchestra has nothing to fear from comparisons. Like the Canadian conductor with the COE, Ticciati banished the "problems" of the orchestration with the leaner texture of a smallish ensemble of strings. In contrast to Rattle, he opts for the 1851 version of the D minor symphony, not the 1841 original, and this climactic performance in his cycle sets the seal on the new issue's success. Already, in the B flat major "Spring", C major and E flat major "Rhenish" symphonies, Ticciati adopts near-ideal tempi, refusing to drag in the slow movements - respectively larghetto, adagio espressivo and "feierlich" (solemn) - and he is propulsive in Schumann's energetic, animated allegros. The wind soloists throughout effortlessly take centre stage, but the splendidly swaggering horns, especially in the Rhenish and D minor works, deserve special mention.