Ouvertüre, Scherzo und Finale

The fact that Ouverture, Scherzo und Finale is hardly known may be due to the difficulty of categorizing it. In letters and notes, one can occasionally fi nd the designation ‘suite’, ‘symphoniette’ and even ‘symphony’ although the work was not included by Schumann in the canon of his four symphonies. It does not even appear in the ‘Cycle of Overtures’ which he created in the 1850s.

Originally, Schumann had composed the Ouverture as an independent orchestral work, adding the other two parts later. The final completion took twelve years altogether, and during that time, many passages were rejected or revised.