Proms 2026 Rattle Conducts Schumann

The elusive, troubled visionary Robert Schumann is in the spotlight for Sir Simon Rattle and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra – ‘one of the most polished period-instrument ensembles in the world’ – which brings its distinctive tang and timbre to three of the composer’s best-loved works. Joy and despair, sanity and madness are in constant conflict through Schumann’s music, a battle that yields a glorious C major resolution in the overture from Genoveva and a profound, resilient optimism in the rich Second Symphony. But peace is harder to come by in the enigmatic Violin Concerto, composed on the brink of the composer’s final mental collapse. Isabelle Faust is the soloist.

Isabelle Faust © Marco Borggreve