In his classic study The Orchestra from Beethoven to Berlioz, Adam Carse observes that the ‘enduring strength’ of the symphonic repertoire from the first half of the nineteenth century derived mainly from German symphonists. But to this observation he quickly adds the name of Hector Berlioz, ‘whom Nature, perhaps rather capriciously, decided to make a Frenchman’. In a more recent study, Brian Primmer places the question of musical nationality in a somewhat different light:

Robert Schumann, in a more famous aphorism, was more succinct: ‘Tell me where you live, and I will tell you how you compose’. While each of these statements has a certain validity, all oversimplify what in fact is a complex issue – the nature of, and relationship between, German and French styles in the early nineteenth century. German musicians at that time were still trying to come to terms with the impact of Beethoven, whose works cast a long shadow and provoked lively debate.