Schumann

Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay “Neue Bahnen”, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future.

Following her recent well-received Michael Nyman recording Chasing Pianos, Valentina now turns her attention to the Romantic Era and the Études of Chopin and Schumann. Chopin’s Études were the first to be seen as true piano works rather than merely studies. Quickly becoming a regular part of the concert repertoire, these are some of the most challenging and evocative works for piano.

Schumann‘s compositions are above all, mystical to me. This mystical musicality is combined with an unparalleled realism, which altogether gives this unique and special musical experience. It is precisely this double effect that is the strongest and most special feature of Schumann’s music for me. I would say that both elements are present with extreme realism.

Schumann's chamber compositions are undoubtedly among the most important European works of the nineteenth century. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was the archetypal Romantic composer, a man with unbounded imagination, who mastered almost every genre of his time.

Clara… Clara Wieck, who became Clara Schumann after marrying Robert in 1840, was a precocious and exceptional pianist. Starting recitals at the age of ten, she possessed a powerful technique and deep expressive capacity that she showcased in tours across Europe. After tense years, because Frédéric Wieck, her father and Robert’s teacher, deterred their rush to get married, when the union finally brought them familial happiness, it also brought numerous children, for which Clara’s career, although not stopped entirely, was limited considerably. Admired by Chopin, Liszt, and Mendelssohn as a performer, and more than admired, she was revered (and loved) by Brahms. As a composer, she wasn’t formally ambitious but she did display fine sensitivity and delicate inspiration. Her works always revolved around the piano, an instrument for which she cultivated brief forms typical of the romantic awakening, such as impromptus, waltzes, caprices, nocturnes, romances, and fantasies, and she also composed for the piano accompanying the voice (Lieder) and in various chamber formations, even with an orchestra.