"...one of the most attractive collections of this music" (Gramophone) "As a conductor, the versatile musician Heinz Holliger emerges as a knowledgeable Schumann expert who,...

"...one of the most attractive collections of this music" (Gramophone) "As a conductor, the versatile musician Heinz Holliger emerges as a knowledgeable Schumann expert who, alongside the excellent WDR Orchestra, makes everything to which the composer aspired shine, gleam and glow: simply beautiful music of the vibrant and current romantic spirit, unfractured but carefully thought out." (Das Orchester) The complete edition of Robert Schumann's symphonic works with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under Heinz Holliger is now available on one comprehensive release. Alongside the Symphonies Nos 1-4, this edition comprises the D minor Symphony in the original version, as well as the Symphony in G minor, "Zwickau.” This selection of works creates one of the most comprehensive recorded editions of Schumann's symphonic works. The Schumann specialist Heinz Holliger successfully proves, contrary to common preconceptions, Robert Schumann's great art of orchestral instrumentation. All recordings remain available as single releases as well.

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Excerpts of select reviews from previously released volumes included in this set:

Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works Vol 1

If we pay Schumann the compliment of knowing what he was trying to do, we see that he succeeded with orchestration here in an astonishingly original way. Quite simply, no other symphony of its era sounds like it—it is almost as though, like Stravinsky, Schumann chose his instruments to pique as much as to beguile. But beguile he does! The WDR SO plays with remarkable subtlety and should rise in anyone’s esteem from the very first hearing. I look forward to the rest of the cycle with genuine impatience!

– Fanfare

Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works Vol IV

Kopatchinskaja is typically bold and provocative in Schumann’s Violin Concerto…where it works really well is in the slow movement, Kopatchinskaja exposing the fragility of Schumann’s writing with heart-rending sensitivity…Dénes Várjon emphasises [the Piano Concerto’s] playfulness and lightness of touch, especially in the slow movement and Finale.

– BBC Music Magazine