robert schumann

Robert Schumann
(June 8, 1810 - July 29, 1856)



This German Romantic composer struggled with music and law on an emotional path that led to madness.  Born in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, he displayed a proficiency for music at a very young age, composing his own pieces and writing essays on the aesthetics of music.  When his father died in 1836, Robert struggled with his mother to continue his study of music.  When he was sent to  Leipzig University to study law, he neglected his studies to pursue the cultural life of the city.  After transferring to Heidelberg University, he found his musical passions rekindled when he saw a performance by Niccolò Paganini in Frankfurt.    It was then that he convinced his mother to let him study music with Friedrich Wieck, whose young daughter, Clara, was herself a remarkable pianist.  It was during this time that Schumann developed an affliction of the hand that dashed his hopes of being a concert pianist and led him to pursue composition.  He also contributed to a weekly magazine Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in which he celebrated the music of modern composers like Franz Schubert and  Frédéric Chopin.  

He began an engagement with sixteen-year-old Ernestine von Fricken, but cut it off when he discovered that she would have no dowry.   He then pursued a clandestine relationship with fifteen-year-old Clara Wieck.  Their romance lasted for years until her father discovered their correspondence.  The elder Wieck strongly opposed the match and even sued Schumann when he asked for her Clara's hand; but Wieck lost the suit and the couple were married in September of 1840, one day before her twenty-first birthday.  

 A teaching position at Leipzig Conservatory was compromised by Schumann's bouts with depression and the couple moved to Dresden, where he was able to relax and compose again.   A move to Düsseldorf where Schumann took the position of Director of Music; but was not up to the task.  He began to suffer with ringing in the ears and "angelic voices" that would eventually become much darker, leading to his request to be put in an asylum.  After a failed suicide attempt he was admitted to Endenich asylum near Bonn, where he died in July of 1856 from complication of what some have theorized was syphilis,  mercury poisoning,  chordoid meningioma, or even bipolar disorder.  


Schumann would express:    "Nothing right can be accomplished in art without enthusiasm ... If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place  ...  The painter turns a poem into a painting; the musician sets a picture to music  ...  In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of."










www.classical.net/schumann










Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.54(Allegro affettuoso)





Fantasiestücke for Piano & Clarinet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBCjQZJk8yM&feature=youtu.be





Kinderszenen, Op. 15 




Papillons, Op. 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghjhk6Es6D8




Symphony No 1 B flat major Spring Frühlingssinfonie




Album für die jugend, Op. 66
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9sxL7n8TSs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_zWKSUpkK0




Carnaval, Op. 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApO6JTEFOqo




Das Parodies und die Peri 





Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8FUZ-saANQ





Lieder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPNwBZYju7I


DICHTERLIEBE OP. 48
1 Im wunderschonen monat mai 00:00
2 Aus meinen traenen spriessen 01:43
3 Die rose, die lilie, die taube 02:46
4 Wenn ich deine augen seh' 03:18
5 Ich will meine seele tauchen 04:58
6 Im rhein, Im heiligen strome 05:51
7 Ich grolle nicht 08:15
8 Und wuessten's die blumen, die kleinen 10:03
9 Das ist ein floeten und geigen 11:15
10 Hoer' ich das liedchen klingen 12:45
11 Ein juengling liebt ein maedchen 14:55
12 Am leuchtenden sommermorgen 15:55
13 Ich hab' im traum geweinet 18:38
14 Allnaechtlich im traume 21:27
15 Aus alten maerchen 23:13
16 Die alten, Boesen lieder 26:08

LIEDERKREIS OP.39
17 Morgens steh'ich auf und frage 31:37
18 Es treibt mich hin 32:41
19 Ich Wandelte unter den baeumen 33:56
20 Lieb'lienchen, ligs haendchen 37:28
21 Schoene wiege meiner leiden 38:20
22 Warte, warte, wilder schiffmann 42:17
23 Berg' und burgen schaun herunter 44:15
24 Anfangs wollte'ich fast verzagen 47:53
25 Mit myrten und rosen 49:06

frédéric chopin

                                               
Frédéric François Chopin
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
 (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849)

Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era struggled with his health and poured his dispair into his piano.   He was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw.   A child prodigy, he began composing at the age of seven and performing at the elegant salons of aristocratic society.  He enrolled at the Warsaw Conservatory of Music and completed many works before moving to Vienna and travelling throughout Europe performing.  At the age of twenty. he relocated to Paris where he connected with contemporaries like Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini and Felix Mendelssohn.   He was introduced to the Rothschild banking family whose patronage opened doors for him.  He also found employment as a private teacher, which afforded him the time to compose.   

In 1838 Chopin began a love affair with French novelist Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, aka, George Sand.   During a miserable winter on  the island of Majorca, south of France, Chopin took ill and was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis).  Chopin and Sand settled at Sand's country home south of Paris in Nohant and for several years, during which time he composed some of his greatest works.  His health continued to decline (some speculate that he suffered from epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, or cirrhosis), as did his relationship with Sand.  Her 1846 novel Lucrezia Floriani seemed to depict their relationship in less than flattering terms.  In 1848, they separated and Chopin took an extended tour of England and Scotland.  His final performance was in November of 1848 and he died in Paris at the age of thirty-eight on October 17, 1849.   


Chopin would express:     "Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art  ...  When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher  ...  I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness. And yet I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them  ...  Sometimes I can only groan, suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!"














1. Etude Opus 25
2. Nocturne Number 1 Opus 9 ( 2:27 )
3. Nocturne Opus 15 ( 7:44 )
4. Nocturne B Flat minor, op 9 No 1 ( 11:08 )
5. Nocturne B major, op 32 No 1 ( 16:33 )
6. Nocturne C minor, op 48 No 1 ( 20:30 )
7. Nocturne C Sharp minor, op 27 No 1 ( 25:06 )
8. Nocturne D Flat major, op 27 No 2 ( 29:02 )
9. Nocturne E Flat major, op 9 No 2 ( 33:35 )
10. Nocturne E minor, op 72 No 1 ( 38:18 )
11. Nocturne F Sharp major, op 15 No 2 ( 41:43 )
12. Nocturne F Sharp minor, op 48 No 2 ( 44:27 )
13. Nocturne G minor, op 15 No 3 ( 50:59 )
14. Piano Prelude No 4 Opus 28 ( 55:33 )
15. Piano Prelude No 15 Raindrop ( 57:39 )
16. Piano Prelude No 7 Opus 28 ( 1:03:14 )
17. Polonaise Opus 53 Heroic ( 1:04:11 )
18. Polonaise No 1 c sharp minor op 26 No 1 ( 1:10:38 )
19. Prelude No 14 e flat minor op 28 ( 1:18:29 )
20. Prelude No 17 Ab major op 28 ( 1:19:03 )
21. Prelude No 18 f minor op 28 ( 1:22:02 )
22. Prelude No 3 G major op 28 ( 1:22:50 )
23. Prelude No 6 b minor op 28 ( 1:23:52 )
24. Prelude No 8 f sharp minor op 28 ( 1:26:00 )
25. Scherzo b flat minor op 31 ( 1:27:50 )
26. Valse f minor op 70 No 2 ( 1:37:49 )
27. Valse No 3 a minor op 34 No 2 ( 1:40:47 )
28. Valse No 6 D flat major op 64 No 1 Minuten-Walzer ( 1:46:15 )
29. Valse brilliante in E b Op 18 ( 1:48:00 )
30. Waltz A Flat major, op 69 No 1 ( 1:50:05 )



Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58



Nocturne in F Minor, Op 55, No 1  



Mazurka B major op. 56 No 1




Polonaise in G Minor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvowvhjWrrY




Scherzo in B-flat minor