This album offers an intimate glimpse into Schumann's world through three highly symbolic works. At its heart is the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony, a rarely performed score whose transparency and almost chamber music-like clarity stand in stark contrast to the weightiness of the later revision, revealing a Schumann of striking directness. The Cello Concerto and the Fantasy for Violin, the latter presented here in an idiomatic and expressive transcription for cello, both originate from Schumann's final years in Düsseldorf and share an atmosphere of shifting moods and luminous shadows. Throughout the album, Alexander Rudin—both as conductor and solo cellist—creates together with Musica Viva a vibrant, deeply human portrait of Schumann's imaginative world and its fragile, radiant beauty.