Clara Wieck-schumann : Romantic Piano Music. Vol 2

'Yet you a man have sensed in these songs a depth which hardly the most knowing female heart can feel!' Thus an admirer wrote to Robert Schumann concerning his song cycle Frauenliebe Und Leben.Schumann’s empathy with the highly romantic inflections of Adelbert von Chamisso‘s poetry may also have arisen from the circumstances that prompted this cycle for it was written during one of the happiest periods of hislife just before his marriage to Clara Wieck. Ever since its initial publication Frauenliebe Und Leben has been immensely popular with male and female singers alike. Now it appears for the first time in a Henleurtext edition equally well-suited for medium male or female voice (mezzo soprano or baritone).

Clara Wieck’s sincerest wish was that her future husband, Robert Schumann, turn his extraordinary genius toward the larger and more challenging task of composing orchestral music. Confiding in her diary in 1839, just one year before her marriage, she explained that “it would be best if he composed for Orchestra: his imagination cannot find sufficient scope in the Piano…” In the years that followed their marriage Robert Schumann continued to devote much of his attention to Piano music, but he also found the time to comply with his beloved Clara’s wish by creating a number of musical pieces composed specifically for Piano and Orchestra. Although Schumann’s genius is most in evidence in his masterful solo Piano compositions and superb lieder, his lively and provocative imagination manifests itself with equal aplomb in the works composed for Piano and Orchestra. The same compelling romantic and lyrical qualities that captivate lovers of Schumann’s Piano music are evident in these compositions. Three of his finest are presented here in full score, including the A Minor Piano Concerto, one of the most popular and frequently performed concertos ever written. All demonstrate his remarkably innovative approach to music, diverting substantially from the classic models of the day, and display his immense creativity as well as his warmth and sensitivity. Included in this collection of Schumann’s compositions for Piano and Orchestra are: Piano Concerto In A minor, Op. 54 (published 1846) Concertstück, Op.92 (Introduction and Allegro appassionato; published 1852) Introduction and Allegro, Op. 134 (published 1855) These three works by one of the greatest masters of romanticism will delight musicians, music lovers and students, as well as devotees of Schumann. Pianists will be especially pleased to have these appealing Schumann works in one convenient edition available at an affordable price.