Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann's presence in the history of European music has become firmly fixed in recent years: the many new biographies, editions, recordings and performances of her compositions testimony to her significance and influence. Her songs, not as well known as her works for piano, are among the treasures of her creative work and can take their place with the best of the German Lieder repertoire.

13 September 2019 marks the 200th birthday of Clara Schumann, one of the most important musicians of the 19th century: a virtuoso pianist and composer, more and more of whose works are now being recorded. The pieces on this album, which has been intelligently compiled by pianist Yaara Tal, tell their own story of the friendships and impossible loves which gravitated around the Schumanns.

In this course by Professor Robert Greenberg you meet the Schumanns—brilliant, gifted, troubled, and unique in the history of music. Robert Schumann (1810–1856) and his wife Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896) have earned a distinct place in the annals of Western music. As a couple with a two-career marriage—he as a pioneering critic and composer, she as one of the leading concert pianists of Europe—they were highly exceptional in their own time though they seem very contemporary in ours.

Jozef de Beenhouwer offers Clara Schumann and listening audiences a special gift on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of her birth: an album including numerous recording premieres from this famous pianists extensive transcription oeuvre. He not only honors her compositional talent but also spotlights works with which she very deliberately and intensively occupied herself and in the process very attractively nuances our picture of the musical Schumann family. The focus is formed by selected songs by Robert Schumann.

Heinz Holliger - Romancendres & Gesänge der Frühe / Clara Schumann - Romanzen
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart / Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart / Heinz Holliger
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 224 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: ECM New Series # ECM 2055 | Country/Year: Germany 2009
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Contemporary

…Holliger's homage to Schumann continues with the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, and their eerie performance of Gesänge der Frühe, a highly contrasting piece to Schumann's work of the same title. The text includes ominous excerpts of letters regarding Schumann's death and even pathology reports. Regrettably, the liner notes do not provide listeners with an English translation of the text. Both of Holliger's compositions on this album are intriguing and credit is due for his innovative bridging of the centuries, but his style of composition may not be suited for the casual listener.

For the 200th anniversary of Clara Schumann’s birth, Isata Kanneh-Mason takes us on a journey through the composer’s extraordinary life with her stunning debut album on Decca Classics. Isata will be joining forces with an all-female line-up to champion the significance of women musicians throughout the years, and their influence on the classical musical canon. The recording features Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, written at the age of fourteen, performed by the composer at Leipzig Gewandhaus two years later under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn.