Composer Robert Schumann suffered from mental issues for many years during his lifetime. But in 1842, Schumann collapsed from exhaustion and overwork.
When Robert and his wife, Clara went to Dresden that October, his nights were sleepless and sheer torture; Clara would awaken to find him “swimming in tears.” He wrote no music for a year—it took him weeks just to draft a letter. Eventually he began to study Bach systematically, and to try his own hand at some compositional exercises.
Schumann’s C major symphony is the first large-scale piece that he wrote after his breakdown. For a composer who cut his teeth on piano pieces and songs, moved naturally into chamber music, and had only recently tackled writing for orchestra, this was a bold effort, perhaps even a test of the strength of his recuperation.
Schumann took to the new medium with great enthusiasm, if not comparable experience: the Spring Symphony, for example, was sketched in four days and finished in less than a month.
The C major symphony (#2) didn’t go as quickly or easily, partly because Schumann was feeling his way back toward a full recovery.
Personally I have great love for this work, because I learned it back in 1951 when I was a member of an orchestra in New York, where my family lived.
Here is the Schumann Symphony #2 for your enjoyment:
