Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown. The piece contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited ‘Florestan’, and the brooding, poetic ‘Eusebius’, both performed by Simon Callow, came into conflict in his music.

This film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatized sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composer’s complex and fractured genius. Sir Roger Norrington conducts the Camerata Academica in the piece, which is woven together with this highly original and visually distinguished music film.