What about Schumann..?

Pianists are lucky when it comes to Robert Schumann, who left us a treasury of immortal works. We are lucky also because we have the challenge and necessity of unraveling the secrets embedded in his music, so as to come up with a sympathetic interpretation. His music is so bound up in his heightened imagination that it is neigh impossible to get near his "truth" without a great deal of reading, both his own writings and particularly works by Jean-Paul Richter, ETA Hoffmann, and various other German writers of his time.

I have long felt that Schumann is more for the pianist than for the general audience. He lacks the immediate charm of Chopin, and the more overt playful quality of Mendelssohn. What he does have, in large doses, is passion. It is a throughly Germanic type passion, that involves both the head and the heart. His tenderness is heart breaking at times, especially in Kreisleriana and the less played Humoresque. There is something always very noble about his melodic writing, made even more complex with the underlying counterpoint. One can just see Robert and Clara spending an evening playing Bach, absorbed in his counterpoint. We have to remember J S Bach was enjoying the great revival set in motion by Mendelssohn, and the impact on the Romantics was enormous.

Pressure must have been a daily double dose for Schumann, what with seven children to provide for. His output is big, even in spite of the detours of depression and illness. Clara certainly had her hands full. How on earth she continued her career with all these children and a demanding husband defies understanding. But, there must have been great love in that marriage. One feels it tremendously in the great Fantasy, Opus 17. Such originality of expression makes it a landmark in his compositions, and nowhere does he reveal himself more than in this work.

In this Bicentenial Year of Chopin and Schumann, perhaps Chopin is getting the greater play. That is understandable in light of Schumann's more complex nature and his more introverted half. But I feel he somehow is better off this way, making those who turn to his music work a little harder at getting to know him.

Schumann reveals his fatherly love in the Kinderszenen and the Album for the Young. What is revealing about both is that, for the greater part, they are not pieces for children at all, but an adults view of a child's world. They do reveal Schumann's great love of children and their imaginative play world...almost the same for him in adulthood, where he succeeds in creating a unique world of imagination, fantasy and passion.

Playing Around South Carolina...January 2010

Sometimes deja-vu takes me by complete surprise. Arriving in Hartsville, South Carolina last Tuesday to perform at Coker College, I suddenly realized it had been almost 30 years since I performed there. Keeping an eye out for the restored Opera House where I dedicated a Steinway all those decades ago, I suddenly found myself staring at a huge new auditorium, part of a new performing arts center on campus. Suddenly I had to adjust my sights upwards, as I had expected a very small venue. Going inside I found a very attractive proscenium stage, with enough equipment to install a traveling Broadway show. Better still, even though the hall looked big, there were actually only 400 seats. Skillful lighting by the technician helped create a more intimate feeling, and I felt very comfortable. This was a free community concert, and a large audience turned out on a beautiful evening...the best one in weeks after record cold in these parts. I kept things informal by introducing each number,and since it was a varied program of both classical and film music, that approach worked very well. There were some surprises along the way. I found they liked some pieces I had worried about programming, and that gave me courage. Trying to scale down a very loud Steinway concert grand was challenging, and especially after I discovered the sound would drop off the scale if I used the soft pedal. So to avoid having a big hole in the dynamics, I kept my foot off of it the whole time.
They loved the first movement of the Schumann "Fantasy" Opus 17. Schumann was apt to write rather big and grand first movements that tend to stand by themselves. A good example is the first movement of his Concerto in A Minor, for piano and orchestra. Several years went by before he added the second and third movements, at the urging of his wife, pianist Clara Schumann. They responded beautifully to this piece, and having the time to tell the story about its composition to the audience was a great plus. I will write furthur about this in my next entry.

Chopin always delights an audience, and I chose wisely with Mazurkas and Preludes. I left the Barcarolle Opus 60 off the program as I felt it was not quite ready yet, and also the program was getting on the long side. But it does need to be there to balance the effect of the Schumann.

I ended up with three popular selections "The Dream of Olwen" by Charles Williams, "All the Things You Are" by Jerome Kern, and the "Warsaw Concerto" by Richard Addinson. These are from my CD "Spellbound", featuring themes from the 1940's. Funny how the films and stage shows these numbers came from were not really successful, but somehow the music caught on. For instance, a friend in London explained that the Warsaw Concerto was featured in a film about a Polish fighter pilot, who fought for the RAF after escaping from Poland. She said the film came just at the end of the Battle for Britain, when the English feared the worst, and morale was very low. The stirring quality of the Warsaw Concerto lifted their spirits, and became a symbol for Victory. I told the audience this story before I played it, and they cheered and stood up at the end of it! That was great, as one doesn't get that very often. Its fun watching faces as you are speaking, and in this instance, I had everyone's attention. I'm all for attention!