Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)                      Andante and Allegro brillant Op.92

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856)                        Bilder aus Osten Op. 66, (Pictures from the East)

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Lebhaft
                        2. Nicht schnell und sehr gesangvoll zu spielen
                        3. Im Volkston
                        4. Nicht schnell
                        5. Lebhaft
                        6. Reuig andächtig

Clara Schumann                                                         March in E-flat

Johannes Brahms                                                      Hungarian Dances, Nos 1, 3, and 5

In 19th-century Europe, before music was easily accessible as it is now at the click of a button, there were two ways to listen to orchestral music or the latest opera: either at your local concert hall or opera house, or you played it at home yourself. Arrangements of symphonies, overtures and operas proliferated for various instrumental combinations but the most popular arrangements were for piano duet. What better way to reproduce the rich sounds of an orchestra! Also, in a society which did not encourage close contact, sitting next to each other, ‘accidentally’ bumping hands in the service of making music would not have raised any eyebrows! There was also, of course, music composed specially for this medium. Classical composers such as Mozart and Schubert led the way, but it was not till the Romantic era that the piano duet truly flourished as more and more households owned a piano and becoming as accomplished a pianist as possible was considered ‘de rigueur’.

How better to explore this fascinating oeuvre than through the story of the acclaimed pianist Clara Schumann whose performing career spanned the greater part of the 19^th century. Married to the iconic Romantic composer, Robert Schumann, she championed his works and that of his younger colleague, Johannes Brahms. Her circle of friends included Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Wagner (whose music she hated with a passion!) and many others.

We open our programme with the Andante and Allegro Brillant, op 92 by the Schumanns’ great friend and neighbour, Felix Mendelssohn. This was composed as a present for Clara and they performed it together at a benefit concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the end of March 1841. Clara wrote in her dairy, “Saturday 27^thMendelssohn brought the Duo composed for my concert. We played it, it displeased him and he fell into an amusing rage because he had imagined that some places would be more beautiful…(the next day) I spent the evening at Mendelssohn’s; we played the Duo again several times – his anger subsided and a feeling of satisfaction seemed to replace it”. The Andante is a beautiful lyrical introduction to the Allegro Brillant, which is considered one of the most challenging works in the piano duet repertoire.

 We continue with Robert Schumann’s set of six Impromptus, Op 66, “Bilder aus Osten” (Pictures from the East) composed towards the end of 1848. This was a time of great stability and creativity for the Schumanns. They had moved from Leipzig to Dresden in 1844 and made many friends amongst musicians, painters, and writers. Nearly a third of all of Robert’s works were composed in Dresden including his piano concerto which Clara premiered in 1845. The “Bilder aus Osten” were inspired by Friedrich Rückert’s German translation of a set of 50 poems (‘Makamen’) by the 11th century Arabic scholar and poet Al-Hariri of Basra entitled “Die Verwandlungen von Abu Serug”, (The transformation of Abu Serug). It is unlikely that Clara would have played these pieces with Robert as he had famously injured his hand in his youth and had to give up his dreams of becoming a virtuoso pianist. However, in the diary which Clara kept throughout her life, she recounts that her two eldest daughters, Marie and Elise, decided to learn the “Bilder aus Osten”. They wanted to surprise their mother on her return home from one of her many concert tours. They enlisted their great family friend, Johannes Brahms to help them learn the pieces. Brahms was a frequent visitor to the Schumann household. Eugenie, the youngest Schumann daughter, even wrote this in her memoirs, “We took Brahms for granted. There he was, always had been, and always would be; he was one of us”.

It all began when the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms met the famous musical couple in 1853, a year before Robert Schumann’s suicide attempt and subsequent hospitalization at the psychiatric institute in Endenich where he eventually died in 1856. During those two years, Brahms helped take care of Clara and her seven children. In the years that followed Clara and Johannes became the closest of friends as their correspondence of over 40 years testifies. Their letters are filled with gossip about everything from artistic matters to more mundane topics such as finances, holidays and much more besides. Brahms sought and enormously valued Clara’s advice regarding his compositions and she scrutinised his works meticulously before they ever reached the concert hall or were sent to his publisher. This scrutinization included his Hungarian Dances which were originally written for piano duet and which they played together.  This programme includes three of the Hungarian Dances from Book 1. Nos 1 and 5 are possibly the most well-known: the latter was based on the csárdás “Bártfai emlék” (Memories of Bártfa) by Hungarian composer Béla Kéler, which Brahms mistakenly thought was a traditional folksong!

Celebrated until quite recently solely as a pianist and the wife of Robert Schumann, it is now impossible to ignore Clara Schumann the composer. Her output was small but very fine. When Robert died in 1856, she needed to earn a living to look after their seven children and so embarked on a punishing touring career which lasted until 1891, leaving no time for composing. However, in 1879, nearly a quarter of a century later, Clara put pen to paper again in 1879 to compose a piano duet, the March in Eb, as a present for the artist Julius Hübner and his wife, Pauline who were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. They had been part of the Schumanns’ intimate circle of close friends during the time they lived in Dresden. Clara incorporated Robert’s ‘Grossvater und Grossmutter’ song duet from his Op 34 set into the March in Eb, which was finally published in 1996 on the 100^th anniversary of her death.