ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio and Classical
KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette and I'll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to "Major and Minor Masterpieces," where we focus each week on a
broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies
and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today's focus: Chamber music for piano and strings by Robert Schumann.
Schumann, born in 1810, the same year as Frederic Chopin, was severely affected by
what today would probably have been diagnosed as bipolar disorder. He recognized it
to the extent that he created characters that defined his two alter egos --- Florestan, an
impetuous extrovert, and Eusebius, pale, studious and introverted.
Schumann was prolific, particularly during his manic phases, composing nearly 130
works for solo instruments and combinations. But by the 1850s his mental health had
begun to seriously deteriorate; during the winter of 1854, he began to hear "angelic"
voices that morphed into a bestial noise of "tigers and hyenas." One morning he threw
himself into the Rhine River; rescued by fishermen, he ended up in a sanatorium, where
he died two years later.
Between 1828 and 1840, while he was wooing Clara Wieck, daughter of one of his
teachers and one of the mid-19th century's most phenomenal pianists, Schumann
composed mostly piano pieces. For nearly a year before and after their marriage in
1840 (after he successfully sued her father, who objected to the match), he principally
wrote songs --- nearly 140 of them. After that, he veered into concentrating on
orchestral works, composing in relatively short order his first two symphonies.
In 1842 he turned his focus to writing chamber music --- three string quartets and his
Piano Quintet and his Piano Quartet, both in E-flat. The latter two pieces, which you'll
hear later in the show, he wrote simultaneously over the course of just two months.
Influenced by predecessors Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven, and his
contemporary, Felix Mendelssohn --- in particular, Mendelssohn's Trio No. 1 in d minor -
-- and with encouragement from wife Clara and fellow composer Franz Liszt, he
followed in 1847 with the first of his three piano trios, also in d minor.
Let's hear Trio Wanderer ---Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, violin; Raphaël Pidoux,
cello; and Vincent Coq, piano --- perform Robert Schumann's Trio No. 1.
(ROBERT SCHUMANN'S TRIO NO. 1 IN D MINOR, OP. 63)
ERIC: Trio Wanderer performed Robert Schumann's Trio No. 1 in d minor, op.63.
Schumann began writing his second trio immediately after finishing his first, but didn't
complete it until 1849. He described it as "creating a more amiable and immediate
impression" than the first, and it was a favorite of Clara, who played it extensively.
Trio Wanderer plays Schumann's Trio No. 2 in F major op.80.
(ROBERT SCHUMANN'S TRIO NO. 2 IN F MAJOR, OP. 80)
ERIC: Trio Wanderer played Schumann's Trio in F major, op.80, on Major and Minor
Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and KLRE-FM, 90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
---PROGRAM BREAK---
[EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
SARAH BUFORD, PRODUCER:
Hey listeners, welcome back to Major and Minor Masterpieces. I'm your producer,
Sarah Buford, and it's time for our show's little educational session, in which we break
down some of the terminology we use when describing classical music and its history.
Eric, we've talked about a lot of musical terms that are Italian in origin, and Italy seems
to have had an outsized influence on classical music overall. Can you fill us in?
ERIC: Well, Sarah, Italy was for centuries the musical center of Europe, even as far
back as the Middle Ages when music mostly consisted of Gregorian chants in Catholic
churches, and leading to the contributions of Renaissance composers, including
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, that are the models for sacred music even to this day.
Italy is where the modern concert form, the basis of most classical music, began, in the
music of Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni. Italy was the
birthplace of opera, starting in the 1590s with works by Claudio Monteverdi. Operas
were exclusively in Italian until the late 18th century, when composers like Mozart
started using librettos in their native language --- in Mozart's case, German. (For an
example of the dispute over that revolution, see the movie "Amadeus.")
Italy was the locale for the major development of string instruments (especially the
violin) in the hands of Cremona craftsmen Stradivarius and Amati. It was also the
birthplace of the modern piano and the center of modern keyboard practice as
developed by Baroque composers like Domenico Scarlatti and subsequently by
classical composers like Muzio Clementi.
Even as classical music developed in other parts of Europe, it was in styles that
originated in Italy --- the sonata, the concerto, the symphony. Bach was a great admirer
of Palestrina and Antonio Vivaldi; Beethoven greatly admired his Italian contemporary
Luigi Cherubini, whose "Requiem," by the way was performed at Beethoven's funeral.
And even up to today, Italy has supplied composers of award-winning soundtracks for
films and TV --- the list includes Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota and Giorgio Moroder.
SARAH: Mille grazie for this explanation, Eric. And now, let's get back to more Major
and Minor Masterpieces.
[END OF EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Schumann's alternating personas, extroverted Florestan and introverted Eusebius, also
make their appearance in Schumann's Piano Quartet, in alternating slow and fiery
passages. The third movement offers what one commentator describes as "one of
Schumann's most achingly romantic melodies, breathed first by the cello. ... Only
Schumann could make such a melody." And the alter egos are distinctly prominent in
the Vivace last movement, Eusebius in the soft preview in a slow tempo and Florestan
when the theme of the finale fully emerges.
Violist Christophe Gaugué joins Trio Wanderer to perform Schumann's Piano Quartet in
E-flat major, op.47.
(ROBERT SCHUMANN'S PIANO QUARTET IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 47)
ERIC: Violist Christophe Gaugué joined Trio Wanderer in that performance of Robert
Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat major, op.47 on Major and Minor Masterpieces.
And now for the capstone of this program of Schumann chamber music: His Piano
Quintet in E-flat major, op.44. Schumann harks back to Beethoven, whose "Eroica"
Symphony --- also in E-flat --- he recalls in the second movement, a funeral march in
the companion key of c minor, and Schubert, whose second trio, D.929, was also in the
key of E-flat.
Violist Christophe Gaugué and violinist Catherine Montier join Trio Wanderer.
(ROBERT SCHUMANN'S PIANO QUINTET IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 44)
ERIC: Violist Christophe Gaugué and violinist Catherine Montier joined Trio Wanderer
to perform Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat major, op.44.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Thanks for tuning in this week. I've been your host, Eric Harrison, of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette. Our producer is Sarah Buford. Our transition and credit music is by
our friend Wojciech Chiselinski.
Tune in again next week for Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio
and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
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The recording:
Robert Schumann, Complete Piano Trios, Piano Quartet & Piano Quintet, Harmonia
Mundi, HMM 902344.46