Post by erik on Nov 7, 2015 19:02:46 GMT -5
Before his final battle with mental illness (which he ultimately lost), Robert Schumann composed a work that all his friends suppressed back in the day as being inferior. But that work eventually resurfaced in the 20th century, and is now in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Schumann: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MINOR
The last three years of Robert Schumann’s life were becoming irredeemably torturous ones, as his latent mental illnesses were overwhelming him. Having completed four symphonies and two concertos (one for the piano, and another for the cello), in a period of just nineteen days in the fall of 1853, he completed a fairly sizeable concerto for the violin during moments of relative lucidity, and specifically for the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim. But the violinist for whom Schumann’s younger contemporary Johannes Brahms would compose his own large violin concerto less than twenty-five years later, judged the work to be a product of the composer’s madness and judged it to be very morbid. As a result, the work was not only never played during the last years of Schumann’s life, it was in fact completely forgotten until well into the 20th century. In 1933, the pair of sister violinists Jelly d’Aranyi and Adila Fachiri, supposedly “guided” by Schumann’s spirit, unearthed the manuscript of the work in the Prussian State Library in Berlin. But it would still be another four years before this work would receive its world premiere in Berlin, with Georg Kulenkampff, who had done a lot of work to make this supposedly unplayable work playable, as the soloist in performance with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwangler. A young Yehudi Menuhin gave the work its American premiere in December 1937 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and their then-music director Vladimir Goldschmann. In general, much like the Fourth Symphony (also in D Minor), the work reflects certain elements of the deterioration of the composer’s mindset, and with opening measures that sometimes echo Mozart’s Requiem, only to settle in for a lyrical slower middle movement in B Flat Major, and then heading towards a triumphal finish in D Major. Henryk Szering gave the work its world premiere recording with Antal Dorati and the London Symphony Orchestra for Mercury Living Presence in 1964; and with its being championed by younger violinists like Gidon Kremer, Thomas Zehetmair, and Joshua Bell, though it is still a ways away from being as popular as those of Brahms, Beethoven, or Mendelssohn, it is gaining traction in recordings, as well as in concert halls.
Violin: JOSHUA BELL
Cleveland Orchestra/CHRISTOPH VON DOHNANYI (London/Decca)
Included:
Brahms: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 77
Schumann: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MINOR
The last three years of Robert Schumann’s life were becoming irredeemably torturous ones, as his latent mental illnesses were overwhelming him. Having completed four symphonies and two concertos (one for the piano, and another for the cello), in a period of just nineteen days in the fall of 1853, he completed a fairly sizeable concerto for the violin during moments of relative lucidity, and specifically for the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim. But the violinist for whom Schumann’s younger contemporary Johannes Brahms would compose his own large violin concerto less than twenty-five years later, judged the work to be a product of the composer’s madness and judged it to be very morbid. As a result, the work was not only never played during the last years of Schumann’s life, it was in fact completely forgotten until well into the 20th century. In 1933, the pair of sister violinists Jelly d’Aranyi and Adila Fachiri, supposedly “guided” by Schumann’s spirit, unearthed the manuscript of the work in the Prussian State Library in Berlin. But it would still be another four years before this work would receive its world premiere in Berlin, with Georg Kulenkampff, who had done a lot of work to make this supposedly unplayable work playable, as the soloist in performance with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwangler. A young Yehudi Menuhin gave the work its American premiere in December 1937 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and their then-music director Vladimir Goldschmann. In general, much like the Fourth Symphony (also in D Minor), the work reflects certain elements of the deterioration of the composer’s mindset, and with opening measures that sometimes echo Mozart’s Requiem, only to settle in for a lyrical slower middle movement in B Flat Major, and then heading towards a triumphal finish in D Major. Henryk Szering gave the work its world premiere recording with Antal Dorati and the London Symphony Orchestra for Mercury Living Presence in 1964; and with its being championed by younger violinists like Gidon Kremer, Thomas Zehetmair, and Joshua Bell, though it is still a ways away from being as popular as those of Brahms, Beethoven, or Mendelssohn, it is gaining traction in recordings, as well as in concert halls.
Violin: JOSHUA BELL
Cleveland Orchestra/CHRISTOPH VON DOHNANYI (London/Decca)
Included:
Brahms: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 77
, and it is, or can be very long-winded certainly (as mentioned even by Joachim and Clara Schumann at the time of composing!). This concerto is complicated too by the fact that another manuscript of its score was discovered/rediscovered in the '80's, which has led to some of the reconsidered performances in recent years. As for the Faust recording: yes, it IS speculative, as sometimes, maybe even often, true of 'period' performance, & this concerto was NEVER heard with such arrangement/instrumentation until recently as Erik says. Still 'modern' (or really c1930-80) arrangements/instrumentation/orchestration is also just an approach. Despite the seeming paradox, I still appreciate the approximation of such