Clara Schumann And Her Circle

Clara Schumann was one of the most important and influential musicians of the 19th century. Hot-housed by her pushy and ambitious piano-teacher father, Friedrich Wieck, she made her concert debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the age of nine and published her first opus - a set of four mazurkas - only two years later. Friedrich's Grand Plan for Clara would ultimately be knocked off course, however, by the arrival on the scene in autumn 1830 of Robert Schumann, who became the Wiecks' live-in student. In time, a relationship blossomed, leading eventually, a decade later - when Clara had reached the age of majority - to marriage, whereupon her career very much took a back seat to looking after Robert and the eight children they would produce together. After Robert's death in 1856, Clara resumed her concert career in earnest - it was, after all, her principal source of income - but more or less stopped composing for good. Her oeuvre, some 50 works, mainly piano miniatures and songs, poses one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in music history - what if her family commitments and the social mores of her day had not constrained Clara Schumann's development as a composer? Her Piano Trio in G minor, one of less than a handful of large-scale works she was able to complete, suggests one possible answer: that she might perhaps have become one of the leading composers of the second half of the 19th century.

Clara first encountered Fryderyk Chopin in the early months of 1832. She was a seasoned virtuoso of 13, on a promotional visit to Paris; he, at 21, had put down roots in the French capital just a few months earlier - an accidental refugee from the failed Polish Uprising. Clara was in the audience for Chopin's astonishing first public Parisian recital, at the Salle Pleyel. She had already learnt one of his works, and his music would be a mainstay of her concert repertoire for the next six decades. The respect was clearly mutual - when Chopin visited Clara in Leipzig a few years later, he was impressed enough to take several of her pieces away with him.

4 Polonaises, Op 1 (No 2 in C)

Suzanne Grutzmann, piano

Variations on Mozart's L

Clara Schumann was one of the most important and influential musicians of the 19th century. Hot-housed by her pushy and ambitious piano-teacher father, Friedrich Wieck, she made her concert debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the age of nine and published her first opus - a set of four mazurkas - only two years later. Friedrich's Grand Plan for Clara would ultimately be knocked off course, however, by the arrival on the scene in autumn 1830 of Robert Schumann, who became the Wiecks' live-in student. In time, a relationship blossomed, leading eventually, a decade later - when Clara had reached the age of majority - to marriage, whereupon her career very much took a back seat to looking after Robert and the eight children they would produce together. After Robert's death in 1856, Clara resumed her concert career in earnest - it was, after all, her principal source of income - but more or less stopped composing for good. Her oeuvre, some 50 works, mainly piano miniatures and songs, poses one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in music history - what if her family commitments and the social mores of her day had not constrained Clara Schumann's development as a composer? Her Piano Trio in G minor, one of less than a handful of large-scale works she was able to complete, suggests one possible answer: that she might perhaps have become one of the leading composers of the second half of the 19th century.

`Ah, if only he had taken me with him,` Clara confided to her diary after Robert's death. Indeed, their lives had been so closely intertwined that sometimes she must have felt like the flip side of a single coin. They kept a joint marriage diary. They studied Bach together. They quoted each other's music in their own. Much of Robert's music is a love-letter to Clara, translating key events in their relationship into sound - and from the start, Clara became its principal advocate and most authoritative interpreter. She was severed from Robert not by his death but on his committal to the insane asylum at Endenich where he passed his final two years. She would spend the next 40 learning to live without him.

Soir退es musicales, Op 6 (No 1, Toccatina in A minor)

Jozef de Beenhouwer, piano

Soir退es musicales, Op 6 (No 2, Notturno)

Konstanze Eickhorst, piano

Novelletten, Op 21 (No 8, Sehr lebhaft (Stimme aus der Ferne))

Eric le Sage, piano

Am Strande; Warum willst du andre fragen, Op 12 No 11; Liebst du um Sch怀nheit, Op 12 No 4; Er ist gekommen, Op 12 No 2

Christina H怀gman, soprano

Roland P怀ntinen, piano

6 Etudes pour le pianoforte d'apr耀s les caprices de Paganini, Op 3 (No 1 in A minor; No 2 in E)

Mariya Kim, piano

Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann, Op 20

Producer: Chris Barstow

Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of Clara Schumann and her circle.

Clara Schumann was one of the most important and influential musicians of the 19th century. Hot-housed by her pushy and ambitious piano-teacher father, Friedrich Wieck, she made her concert debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the age of nine and published her first opus - a set of four mazurkas - only two years later. Friedrich's Grand Plan for Clara would ultimately be knocked off course, however, by the arrival on the scene in autumn 1830 of Robert Schumann, who became the Wiecks' live-in student. In time, a relationship blossomed, leading eventually, a decade later - when Clara had reached the age of majority - to marriage, whereupon her career very much took a back seat to looking after Robert and the eight children they would produce together. After Robert's death in 1856, Clara resumed her concert career in earnest - it was, after all, her principal source of income - but more or less stopped composing for good. Her oeuvre, some 50 works, mainly piano miniatures and songs, poses one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in music history - what if her family commitments and the social mores of her day had not constrained Clara Schumann's development as a composer? Her Piano Trio in G minor, one of less than a handful of large-scale works she was able to complete, suggests one possible answer: that she might perhaps have become one of the leading composers of the second half of the 19th century.

Clara first encountered Felix Mendelssohn in 1835, on his arrival in Leipzig to take up the reins of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Ten years her senior, he held her in high esteem as a musician, and they performed together frequently, both privately and in public - including the premi耀re of Clara's own Piano Concerto. Like Felix, his sister Fanny Hensel was a gifted pianist who had composed profusely from an early age. But she came from a rich Jewish banking family, and for a woman of her social standing a career as a professional musician - or indeed a career of any kind whatsoever - was simply out of the question. Despite her amateur status, though, Clara generously described Fanny as `undoubtedly the most distinguished woman musician of her time`.

Piano Trio in D, Op 11 (3rd mvt, Lied - Allegretto)

The Dartington Piano Trio (Oliver Butterworth, violin; Michael Evans, cello; Frank Wibaut, piano)

Capriccio in F sharp minor, Op 5

Howard Shelley, piano

Verlust (Loss); Fichtenbaum und Palme (Fir Tree and Palm); Italien (Italy)

Christina H怀gman, soprano

Roland P怀ntinen, piano

Octet in E flat, Op 20 (4th mvt, Presto)

Academy Chamber Ensemble

Piano Trio in G minor, Op 17

Boulanger Trio

Producer: Chris Barstow

Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of Clara Schumann and her circle.

Clara Schumann was one of the most important and influential musicians of the 19th century. Hot-housed by her pushy and ambitious piano-teacher father, Friedrich Wieck, she made her concert debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the age of nine and published her first opus - a set of four mazurkas - only two years later. Friedrich's Grand Plan for Clara would ultimately be knocked off course, however, by the arrival on the scene in autumn 1830 of Robert Schumann, who became the Wiecks' live-in student. In time, a relationship blossomed, leading eventually, a decade later - when Clara had reached the age of majority - to marriage, whereupon her career very much took a back seat to looking after Robert and the eight children they would produce together. After Robert's death in 1856, Clara resumed her concert career in earnest - it was, after all, her principal source of income - but more or less stopped composing for good. Her oeuvre, some 50 works, mainly piano miniatures and songs, poses one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in music history - what if her family commitments and the social mores of her day had not constrained Clara Schumann's development as a composer? Her Piano Trio in G minor, one of less than a handful of large-scale works she was able to complete, suggests one possible answer: that she might perhaps have become one of the leading composers of the second half of the 19th century.

`Distintissimo!` - most distinguished! - that's how the 19th-century piano superstar Franz Liszt described Clara Schumann after seeing her play in Vienna in 1838. And Clara, like most people, was absolutely bowled over by Liszt - `He cannot be compared to any other player - he is absolutely unique`, she wrote in her diary. But as a composer, she gradually came to detest him, and by the time of his death she could write that `his compositions lack those very qualities which he possessed as a virtuoso; they are trivial and tedious and will certainly soon disappear from the world in the wake of his passing.` Liszt, by contrast, paid Clara the compliment, late in life, of transcribing three of her songs for solo piano.

Loreley

Barbara Bonney, soprano

Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano

Schubert, transcribed Liszt

Gretchen am Spinnrade (D118), S558 No 8

Yuja Wang, piano

Variations de concert pour le pianoforte sur la Cavatine du Pirate de Bellini, Op 8

Suzanne Grutzmann, piano

Impromptu in G, Op 9 (Souvenir de Vienne)

Jozef de Beenhouwer, piano

Grandes variations de concert (Hexam退ron) sur un th耀me des Puritains, S654

Piano Duo Genova & Dimitrov

Clara Schumann, transcribed Liszt

Warum willst du andere fragen?, Op 12 No 3; Ich hab' in deinem Auge, Op 13 No 5; Geheimes Flüstern, Op 23 No 3

Leslie Howard, piano

Producer: Chris Barstow

Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of Clara Schumann and her circle.

Clara Schumann was one of the most important and influential musicians of the 19th century. Hot-housed by her pushy and ambitious piano-teacher father, Friedrich Wieck, she made her concert debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the age of nine and published her first opus - a set of four mazurkas - only two years later. Friedrich's Grand Plan for Clara would ultimately be knocked off course, however, by the arrival on the scene in autumn 1830 of Robert Schumann, who became the Wiecks' live-in student. In time, a relationship blossomed, leading eventually, a decade later - when Clara had reached the age of majority - to marriage, whereupon her career very much took a back seat to looking after Robert and the eight children they would produce together. After Robert's death in 1856, Clara resumed her concert career in earnest - it was, after all, her principal source of income - but more or less stopped composing for good. Her oeuvre, some 50 works, mainly piano miniatures and songs, poses one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in music history - what if her family commitments and the social mores of her day had not constrained Clara Schumann's development as a composer? Her Piano Trio in G minor, one of less than a handful of large-scale works she was able to complete, suggests one possible answer: that she might perhaps have become one of the leading composers of the second half of the 19th century.

When Clara Schumann recalled in her diary the day she met Johannes Brahms, she described him as `God-sent`. She was referring to his musical talent, but his arrival on her Düsseldorf doorstep in October 1853 turned out to be providential for entirely different reasons. Robert Schumann had been acting erratically for some time, but Clara couldn't have imagined how quickly his situation would deteriorate. Just four months later he suffered a complete mental breakdown and was committed at his own request to the insane asylum at Endenich where he would die almost two and a half years later. Brahms, a young man of just 20, stepped into the breach as a sort of surrogate head of the household. He quickly became indispensable to Clara, offering much-needed practical as well as emotional support - helping to look after her seven surviving children, doing the household accounts and liaising with Robert's doctors about the progress of his illness. After Robert's funeral, Brahms took Clara and two of the children away for a break in Lucerne. No-one knows what transpired there - perhaps Brahms proposed marriage and Clara declined - but it was a major turning-point in their relationship. Brahms's residency at the Schumann home was over. He returned home to Hamburg, and for the next 40 years he and Clara remained the closest of platonic friends, periodically falling out but always making up. Brahms never married. Thirteen years Clara's junior, he survived her by less than 12 months.

Sechs Lieder aus Jucunde, Op 23 (No 5, Das ist ein Tag, der klingen mag (This is a day of singing))

Gabriele Fontana, soprano

Konstanze Eickhorst, piano

Scherzo in E flat minor, Op 4

Julius Katchen, piano

DECCA 455 247-2 CD 2 tk 6

3 Romances, Op 22

Lisa Batiashvili, violin

Alice Sara Ott, piano

3 Romances, Op 21

Cristina Ortiz, piano

Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor, Op 15 (2nd mvt, Adagio)

Radu Lupu, piano

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edo de Waart, conductor

Romance in B minor, Op posth

Producer: Chris Barstow

Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of Clara Schumann and her circle.