The Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120, composed by Robert Schumann, was completed in 1841 (first version). Schumann heavily revised the symphony in 1851, and it was this version that reached publication.

Clara Schumann, Robert's widow, later claimed on the first page of the score to the symphony—as published in 1882 as part of her husband's complete works (Robert Schumanns Werke, Herausgegeben von Clara Schumann, published by Breitkopf und Härtel) — that the symphony had merely been sketched in 1841 but was only fully orchestrated ("vollständig instrumentiert") in 1851. However, this was untrue, and Johannes Brahms, who greatly preferred the earlier version of the symphony, published that version in 1891 despite Clara's strenuous objections.

Schumann himself preferred the revised score for several reasons: besides the orchestration, he revised the structure of the work in particularly effective ways to emphasize the interconnectedness of the piece as a whole: he deleted the brass chorale at the opening of the third movement and recast the trasitions into the Lebhaft section of the first movement and the finale. In his letter to Johannes Verhust of 3 May 1853 Schumann referred to the revised score as "...better and more effective..." than the earlier version.

Movements
The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and the usual strings.

The 1851 (published) version of the work is in four movements which follow each other without pause:

1. Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft (D minor)
2. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam (A minor)
3. Scherzo: Lebhaft (D minor)
4. Langsam; Lebhaft (D major)

However, the 1841 version used Italian rather than German tempo indications, with the four movements, as follows:

1. Andante con moto - Allegro di molto (D minor)
2. Romanza: Andante (A minor)
3. Scherzo: Presto (D minor)
4. Largo - Finale: Allegro vivace (D major)

Schumann's biographer Peter Ostwald comments that this earlier version is "lighter and more transparent in texture" than the revision, but that Clara "always insisted that the later, heavier, and more stately version was the better one." (Both versions are included on the recent recording of Schumann's complete symphonies by John Eliot Gardiner cited below).

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)" ( en.wikipedia.org/ ... i/Symphony_No._4_(Schumann) ).