Schumann's Symphony No.2 was in fact his third symphony, following the composition of No.1 and the first version of what is known as No.4, both in 1841. Following a nervous breakdown in 1844 Schumann sketched the symphony in only one week, in December 1845, although completion of the work took several painful months more. The work, in four movements, was premiered by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig. "The Beethoven of the Third and Fifth symphonies is what I call the "official Beethoven," the Beethoven who grips into the truth of Fate, the one who defied the gods and was punished for it. But may I say, to me that is not even the greatest Beethoven. There is the Beethoven of the Pastoral and Fourth Symphonies, many of his supremely great piano sonatas. There is none of this defiance, none of that sort of almost boasting with one's own strength. There is something gentle, delicate - humorous, but not that sort of biting, almost grotesque humor that you find in most of his works. It is unfortunately true that that sort of quality started to diminish with his personal tragedy of deafness. Georg Tintner was born in Vienna in 1917. He began studying piano at the age of six and to compose soon after. From nine to thirteen he was a member of the Vienna Boys Choir, where he also conducted the choir in performances of his own compositions. At thirteen he entered the Vienna State Academy as a composition prodigy, studying composition with Josef Marx and conducting with Felix Weingartner. At eighteen he was the conductor of a training choir of the Vienna Boys Choir, and trained the choir for a performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony with Bruno Walter in 1936. His compositions were being performed in concert and broadcast by Austrian Radio, and at nineteen he became assistant conductor at the Vienna Volksoper.