Clara and Robert Schumann
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
In this evening’s final hour, we focus on one of the best-known musical couples in the Romantic erathe Schumanns. We hear Clara’s music, and evoke him in memory.
R. Murray Schafer wrote his monodrama “Adieu, Robert Schumann” for Maureen Forrester, who premiered the work on CBD Television in 1978. The work deals with the last days of Robert, from the time of his first hallucinations till his death in the asylum at Endenich. Clara’s diaries provide much of the text, and passages from Schumann’s own compositions are incorporated as Schafer portrays this agonizing period. Mezzo Judith Forst sings Clara’s words and one of Richard’s last songs; Mario Bernardi conducts the Ottowa National Arts Center Orchestra. Listen, and weep. Then admire the lyricism of Clara’s gifts as William Purvis brings us a transcription for horn of her “Three Romances,” Op. 22, originally featuring the violin.
“Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” remind us of Richard Strauss’s stringent wit as Kurt Masur and the New York Phil romp through this audience fave in hour one. Klaus Tennstedt and the Berlin Philharmonic perform Schubert’s “Great” Symphony in C, the one commonly numbered Nine but found to have been written earlier than originally believed. If Schumann had not discovered the score in 1839, and if Mendelssohn had not conducted its premiere, we might never have had the chance to revel in this music, which was never played publicly in Schubert’s lifetime.
R. Murray Schafer wrote his monodrama “Adieu, Robert Schumann” for Maureen Forrester, who premiered the work on CBD Television in 1978. The work deals with the last days of Robert, from the time of his first hallucinations till his death in the asylum at Endenich. Clara’s diaries provide much of the text, and passages from Schumann’s own compositions are incorporated as Schafer portrays this agonizing period. Mezzo Judith Forst sings Clara’s words and one of Richard’s last songs; Mario Bernardi conducts the Ottowa National Arts Center Orchestra. Listen, and weep. Then admire the lyricism of Clara’s gifts as William Purvis brings us a transcription for horn of her “Three Romances,” Op. 22, originally featuring the violin.
“Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” remind us of Richard Strauss’s stringent wit as Kurt Masur and the New York Phil romp through this audience fave in hour one. Klaus Tennstedt and the Berlin Philharmonic perform Schubert’s “Great” Symphony in C, the one commonly numbered Nine but found to have been written earlier than originally believed. If Schumann had not discovered the score in 1839, and if Mendelssohn had not conducted its premiere, we might never have had the chance to revel in this music, which was never played publicly in Schubert’s lifetime.
